NitW: Beyond the Springs (REMASTERED)
by The Burning Writer
Summary: It's been a year since the gang defeated the evil murder cult and Mae's life has calmed down since then, there were exciting events such as Gregg and Angus moving away but for the most part her life was back to normal. Except her life has never been normal, so when she gets pulled back into the strange parts of life, it takes her out of town, it takes her beyond the Springs
1. Start of a fun day

September 14th, 2018, 9:30 P.M. Michigan, Possum Springs, the Borowski Household, Mae's Room.

* * *

Mae was laying on her back on her bed, she was tucked nicely under her covers but she wasn't all that sleepy, normally she'd pass right out after her head touched the pillow, but her mind was to busy thinking about other things. A lot had happened last year, first Mae came home from college after dropping out, then her and her friends find out that somebody has been stealing kids, which led them on a wild goose chase, they tried to look for a ghost but the guy stealing kids wasn't a ghost, he was a guy, some guy named Eide, then after they find out there's a cult living under Possum Springs Mae almost gets shot and she goes into a coma and has weird dreams, eventually she wakes up from her coma and heads back to the cave almost getting herself killed but her friends, Gregg, Angus, and Bea save her from her own stupidity, then they find out deep inside of a mine shaft that the cult is throwing kids down into a hole so they could feed some kind of monster that keeps the town "alive" not only that but they also threw Casey Hartley, Mae and Gregg's best child hood friend, down that hole as well, then after refusing to join them that Eide guy tries to attack Mae only for her friends to drop an elevator on him braking his arm clean off.

Then after all of that Gregg and Angus move away leaving Mae and Bea in Possum Springs together, Mae didn't hate Gregg and Angus for moving away, that was their plan long before the whole cult stuff started to happen, but she did really miss them, they still talked online but it wasn't the same, them moving away also created a hole in Mae's social life which was eventually filled by her two new friends Selmers and Lori, two people she met after coming home and during the murder cult thing. But the reason why Mae was still up was because her life had become kinda boring since her and her friends defeated the cult so she was mentally planing a day's worth of activities her and her friends could do tomorrow, first they'd get some breakfast at the Click-Clack Diner which was actually pretty new, the menu had been implemented a week ago, then after breakfast they'd head over to Lori's place so they could help out wither her homemade movie which wasn't something Mae had to think long and hard about because everyone already agreed on meeting up there earlier in the day, then once they finished up what ever Lori would want them to help her with they'd head into the woods and just look around till around eight thirty or so at night.

Mae yawned finally becoming tired after all that time, she rolled onto her right side and stared at the wall in front of her, she mentally went through her list of activities again before her eyes started to close by herself, and just before she finally passed out she had one last thought " _Before any of the activities I gotta run over to the Ol' Pickaxe and tell Bea about them._ "

And with that Mae's eyes finally closed all on their own and she drifted into the realm of dreams.

* * *

9:32 P.M. Possum Springs, Maple Street, the Applebaum Apartment Complex, Apartment 300.

* * *

Bea opened the door to her Apartment, after stepping into the apartment she walked into the kitchen and tossed her keys onto the kitchen counter, she opened up the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, as she walked over to her bedroom she could hear her father's snoring from his room, every time she heard her father snore it made her feel horrible, well worse then normal, when she was younger he never snored but after her mother died he just started randomly one night, Doctor Hank said it was because of stress but Bea doesn't really trust the man of a thousand diplomas.

Bea walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind her, she still had yet to unpack all of her stuff so boxes were just stacked everywhere, she sat down on her bed and twisted the cap of the water bottle off and took a sip of the refreshingly cool water. She just sat there drinking water and thinking for a bit, her mind never dwelt on any one thought for long and those that she did usually were about herself or the Pickaxe, eventually she set the water bottle down on the ground before standing up and walking over to the cardboard box she used to keep all of her clothes off of the floor, she grabbed a blue pajama shirt with the word "BLOOD" written on it's front in red, and the word was stylized as if it was written in blood, it also had sparkly beads all around the word, she then grabbed a pair of black athletic shorts she used to sleep in, on the both sides of the shorts was a pair of twin sports car like green stripes. Bea took off her long black dress and tossed it into a box next to the one she just grabbed her pajamas from, unlike the box of clean cloths the one where the dress now was had the words "Only stupid dirty cloths get in this" written on it's front in black ink which Mae had written one time when she came over, Bea then slipped off her black boots and put them next to a pair of simple very light blue, like to the point they're almost grey, slippers which sat in front of the box filled with clean cloths, after the boots came off she took off her socks and tossed them into the other box, then it was time for her last piece of clothing to come off, her dark black leggings, she slipped them off and also tossed them into the dirty cloths box, finally it was time to put on her pajamas.

After she put on the blue BLOOD top and the black sports stripped shorts she flopped onto her bed landing on her back, she laid there looking up at the ceiling thinking more random thoughts eventually she started to think about her friends, Gregg and Angus had moved away a few months ago but Mae keeps on saying a year ago even though they moved away at the start of THIS year, and as for her new friends Lori and Selmers Mae had introduced them to her, at first she didn't know what to make of them, doesn't help that Mae introduced them as "Lori, a future horror movie director!" and "Selmers, Possum Springs' greatest poet!" but after a while of getting to know them Bea warmed up to them, just recently Lori decided that with the help of her new friends she could make one crappy, ultra low budget, so bad it's funny, horror movie and Bea's going to be in charge of the sound editing, she was also going to supply them with free tools that they'd use in the movie. She then decided that it was time for bed, so she crawled over to the front of her bed and slipped under her covers.

She laid there for a little bit thinking yet again but this time she was thinking about how oddly weird her life felt, after the murder cult was defeated she half expected everything they said to come true, she expected the town to wither away, but instead it didn't, in fact it kinda improved, the Click-Clack changed some stuff up making their food go from meh to okay, and of course there was Mae's new favorite part of town Taco Buck, a small Mexican restaurant that opened up after Pastabilities closed down, but in the back of Bea's mind at the end of everyday the same thought kept on coming back " _Would Possum Springs just up and die tomorrow?_ "

And every time she asked herself that question she'd dismiss it telling herself that even if the town is dying that's not how it works, towns just don't up and die like people do, she then sighed after telling herself the same thing for the hundredth time and finally closed her eyes falling asleep.

* * *

Bea opened her eyes slowly and the very second her eyelids parted the light of the rising sun hit her eyes causing her to jolt upright, she blinked her eyes a few times trying to wake them up before stepping out of bed and walking over to the cloths box, she grabbed her usual cloths black everything and after getting undressed and redressed she walked out of her bedroom heading over to the kitchen, she grabbed her keys off of the counter and quickly grabbed an energy drink from the fridge before leaving the apartment, just as she was closing the door Bea thought she could hear the sound of her father getting out of bed. She walked down the stairs of her apartment only because it didn't have an elevator and walked out of the building heading to the Ol' Pickaxe so she could start her boring work day, but what she wasn't expecting to see when she got there even though she wasn't expecting to see anything was Mae Borowski leaning against the locked front door of the Pickaxe, once Bea came into Mae's view her face lit up "BEA!"

She got off of the door and raised her arms up into the air but Bea just stood there a few feet away from Mae staring at her with her dead pan face "Mae... What the eff are you doing here?"

Mae dropped her arms and frowned slightly "I can't be here early so I can spend more time with my friend?"

Bea blinked a few times still looking at Mae with a dead pan face "You can... If you weren't Margaret Borowski, the person that sleeps until almost midday even when her life was on the line."

Mae's semi frown turned into an angered expression "Yeah Beatrice Santello? Well, well, you... Haven't done anything out of the ordinary yet."

Bea grinned slightly before walked over to the door and unlocking it. She let Mae in after her and Bea flipped on the lights to the store "So what were you doing here so early?"

Mae smiled again "Last night, I came up with a whole list of stuff for us to do today!"

Bea walked over to the front door while Mae explained her list to the crocodile, she then flipped a magnetic sign that on one side, which was currently facing outside, said "We are closed, get lost!" to "Yes... We are open!" Bea then turned around and faced Mae "And what makes you think everyone'll agree on that list of yours?"

Mae stood there for a moment before saying "But do YOU agree?"

Bea rubbed her forehead and walked over to the front counter, she pushed the counter's little door open before facing Mae again "Mae, that's not an answer to MY question."

Mae shrugged "Can't you answer my question first?"

Bea sighed "Honestly... Those activities don't sound completely horrible so, I guess I'm fine with them."

Mae smiled and silently whispered "Yes!"

To herself, she then hopped up onto the front counter and sat on it as Bea made sure the cash register was still in working order "And as for everyone else, one of the items on my list is something we've already agreed on doing and another involves food so I'm pretty sure they won't say no."

"Say no to what?"

Mae and Bea hadn't heard the door open and close so they were startled by Germ sudden asking a question. Bea ran her hand over the top of her head calming herself down "Jesus Germ, I'm going to have to make it mandatory for you to wear a bell to work."

Germ shrugged and walked behind the counter, a few weeks before Gregg and Angus moved Bea hired Germ as an intern and from what Mae heard Germ was actually doing a good job at his job. Germ headed into the back area of the store to go and do something, Mae looked over to Bea who was scanning over the store trying to see if she forgot to do anything, once she made sure she did everything she pulled open a drawer next to the cashier register and grabbed her pack of cigarettes, she opened up the pack and grabbed one she then used her other hand to grab another thing from the drawer which was a lighter, as she lit the cigarette in her mouth she tossed the now closed pack back into the drawer and closed it. Mae scratched the back of her neck slightly "Okay, so I'm gonna run home and tell everyone to meet up for breakfast. And at the Click-Clack I'll tell them the rest of the list."

Bea smiled slightly and puffed out a cloud of smoke "Well in that case.. See you then."

Mae hopped off of the counter and ran out of the store heading back over to her home. She opened the front door and before it slammed shut she ran up stairs heading towards her bedroom, normally she wouldn't make all that much noise at home but both her parents worked today so she could make all the noise she wanted to, once she ran into her room she jumped onto her bed and pulled out her laptop and started the slightly tedious process of giving everyone the same message "Breakfast at the Click-Clack! Meet up at" Mae then looked at her laptop's clock and saw what time it was "7:19" she was in slight disbelief, this was the earliest she'd gotten up since her sixteenth birthday, she then continued writing the message "Meet up at 8:20!" she then went through all of her friends' messaging profiles and sent them her message, almost immediately Mae got a reply from Lori "I'm gonna be a little late."

Mae was actually startled by the sound of Lori sending a message so quickly "Why?"

"I... Kinda got covered in my fake blood."

"How did that happen?"

"It happens when you ask your taller then you dad to put it away and you go to grab a cup from the top cabinet in the morning and knock it over."

"Oh... How later are you going to be?"

"I should finish up my shower by 8:23."

"K, should we wait for you before we order?"

"No, just let the waiter know that I'll be late."

"Got it, see you then."

"See you then."

Mae closed her laptop and placed it back under her bed now all she had to do is go and tell Bea when to meet up with the rest of her friends. Mae ran out of her house and headed back over to the Pickaxe, along the way she saw her aunt's cop cruiser parked by the side of the road and sitting in the driver's seat was of course her aunt who had a cup of coffee in her hand and was watching Mae closely as she ran by, Mae ran back into the store which only mildly surprised Bea who was leaning on the counter a lit cigarette still in her mouth, Germ was also in the back moving something around, Mae walked over to the counter and hopped up onto it sitting next to Bea "We're all gonna met up at 8:20, but Lori's gonna be late."

Bea nodded "Got it.. HEY GERM!"

Germ then walked out of the back area holding a box of various kinds of nails "Yeah?"

Bea got off of the counter so she could face Germ fully "You gonna be fine her for a few minutes to possibly an hour?"

Germ nodded "Yeah I'll be fine, not like the store has anything valuable to steal, it's got useful things but not valuable.. When are you leaving?"

Bea looked over to a clock hung on the wall behind her seeing that the time was now "7:21" she then looked back over to Germ "I'm leaving at 8:20 I'm not sure when Mae's leaving or for how long."

Mae rolled her eyes "I'm leaving when she's leaving."

Germ nodded again "Okay."

He then walked back into the back area to continue doing whatever it was he was doing before. Mae looked over to Bea as she huffed out another cloud of smoke "So what do we do till then?"

Mae shrugged "We could just hang out and talk for a while."

Bea nodded slowly "Yeah, that seems good."

Then the two just sat in the store waiting for the time to pass by just talking to each other, just talking about random thoughts that would occasionally spiral into a real conversation but not always, and when it did Mae loved it, she loved being around Bea, she loved being around all of her friends but she loved being around Bea the most, just hearing Bea talk made her feel good it always reminded her of simpler times, when she could run around the house naked and make her parents chuckle, when the worst thing that could happen to her was that she lost a toy, now Mae was an adult, not a very good one, but still she was an adult, she had to worry about adult problems, but when ever she was around Bea it felt like the world was giving her a look into the past, letting her feel previous emotions of carefree childhood memories, and it always ended up giving Mae smile that also infected Bea and made her smile along side the cat.


	2. Breakfast with a side of secrets

8:19 A.M. Possum Springs, Towne Centre, just past the Snack Falcon.

* * *

Mae and Bea walked side by side heading towards the Click-Clack Diner for breakfast with their friends, they had just pasted the Snack Falcon and the Click-Clack was literally right in front of them, the diner was tucked neatly between the Falcon and the closed and abandoned Food Donkey. The Click-Clack was a train car bolted down to a little piece of tracks that weren't connected to anything, and sitting on the steps in front leading up to the front door was Selmers a brown bear, with brown eyes, wearing a purple hoodie that had a yellow face in the middle of it, a black skirt, and blue shoes. Selmers looked up from the ground when Bea and Mae came closer, she gave them a little wave before standing up, Mae jogged over to Selmers "How'd you get here first?"

Selmers shrugged "Got your message right when you sent it and seeing as how I don't have much to do in the morning I just walked over here and waited."

She walked down the steps and stood with the other two girls, Selmers was a little taller then Mae it the two stood side by side Mae would be up to Selmers's shoulders, while the top of Bea's head was just barely over Selmers's head, Bea looked over to the Click-Clack's door and saw that there was a sign on it that said it was open "Should we... Go inside? Or like wait for Lori?"

Selmers shrugged and Mae answered "Nah, Lori told me that we could get food without her, we just gotta notify the staff that she's gonna be late."

Bea nodded and the group walked into the diner. While Bea was busy being a good adult, unlike Mae, and was off getting them a table the other two girls were sitting on a little cushioned bench that sat next to the door, the bench could really hold three people but Selmers was... a little bigger then most people so she took up a bit more room, both her and Mae could sit together but Bea wouldn't be able to, about the only other person that could sit with them was a small child, or pet. Mae looked over to Selmers "You got a new poem?"

Selmers shook her head "Nah, I usually write poems from around eight to twelve. So I haven't had the chance to write anything new."

Mae sighed "Alright..."

Bea then walked over to the other two and leaned against the wall closest to them "Everything's been set up, but it's gonna take a few minutes for the table to be open."

Selmers shrugged "I've actually waited longer then a few minutes for breakfast so I can wait."

Mae nodded "And it'll give Lori a chance to get here before we sit down."

Bea looked around the entire diner or at least the parts she could see from her current position "Do you know if it's... Legal to smoke in here?"

Mae shrugged "I dunno, do you really need to right now?"

Bea shook her head "Nah I just want to know for later... Believe it or not but I get anxious ordering food, why do you think I was always in the bathroom and had Angus or Gregg tell the waiter what I wanted?"

Bea was right, back when Mae came back from college and her and her original friend group would have food together Bea would disappear before the waiter came by for their food orders. After a few minutes of waiting an employee came by and took the three girls to their table, Bea sat on Mae's right side, Selmers on the left, the two of them facing each other, and Lori when she arrived would be facing Mae. After their waiter came by and took their drink orders Bea stood up "Okay, I'm gonna wait for Lori outside.. Maybe smoke, but I want the almond pancakes.. Got it?"

Mae and Selmers both nodded "Good."

Bea then walked away from them heading towards the front door, as Bea left the waiter came back with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order their food, Mae looked over to Selmers and she nodded, Mae then looked back over to the waiter "Yeah we're ready... So I want some plain old waffles."

Selmers then said "I would like some eggs and sausage links, and our friends Bea wants some almond pancakes."

Selmers then looked over to Mae "You got any idea what Lori wants?"

Mae took a quick second to think "And our missing member wants an omelette.. A plain old one."

The waiter nodded after scribbling down their orders and walked off to the kitchen. Bea stood on the top step just in front of the Click-Clack's front door leaning against the hand rail to her left and smoking a cigarette when Lori came running over, Lori was a dark grey mouse, she was wearing a black hooded jacket, under the jacket was a white shirt that had the decal of a grey circle that had a white triangle pointing downwards, she was also wearing blue jeans and some black sneakers. She ran over to the steps of the diner out of breath, she looked up to Bea who was still leaning against the hand rail and was staring down at her "Am.. I.. To.. Late?"

Bea shook her head "No, in fact you're probably not even that late period. Head inside I'll be in soon."

Lori nodded and walked up the steps, after asking where Mae and Selmers were sitting Lori sat down at their table sitting across from Mae, she was still out of breath from running so she practically chugged the generic glass of ice water Mae had ordered for her. After she both regained her breath and finished chugging her water Lori relaxed in her chair at the same time Bea sat back down with them, Bea looked over to Lori "You ever eat here before?"

Lori shook her head "Nah, me and my parents don't eat out much."

Selmers took a sip from the soda she had ordered "Dennis took me here before, food sucked."

Bea nodded "Yeah, although now it's... Kinda better."

Lori looked over to Selmers "Wait. Who's Dennis?"

Selmers put the clear cup that her soda sat inside of back down on the table "My ex-husband."

Lori's eyes widened in absolute shock "WAIT WHAT!?"

Selmers nodded "Yeah, although when he took me here it was for our like... Sixth date night."

Lori looked over to Mae "Is she kidding?!"

Mae shook her head "Nah, she was married."

Bea looked over to Lori "Don't worry, I didn't know till now either."

Lori looked at Bea as she rubbed the sides of her head "But you're not as shocked as I am!"

Bea shrugged "Honestly... Mae could've told me the reason why she ditched college was because she was pregnant and I would've been mildly interested in who the father was."

Mae grinned "And I would've told you the father was Fiascola Fox!"

Bea rolled her eyes "And I wouldn't have believed you."

Everyone at the table grinned at Mae and Bea's little argument-thing although Lori was still surprised by the revelation Selmers was once a wife. The waiter eventually came back with everyone's food, Lori was given a plain old omelette just like Mae had ordered and when the waiter left after giving everyone their food Lori looked over to Mae "How did you know I love omelettes?"

Selmers looked over to Mae in shock and so did Bea, Mae herself was wide eyed by Lori's question "I didn't. I just chose randomly... I MUST BE PSYCHIC!... I'MA LEVITATE THIS FORK!"

Mae then looked down at her fork and strained herself trying to make it float up into the air which made Bea sigh "Mae, you aren't psychic, and what you're trying to do is called telekinesis."

But Mae wasn't paying any attention to Bea she was too busy psychic-ing the fuck out of that fork which made Bea rub her forehead in frustration "Mae stop it or you're gonna crap your self."

Mae stopped straining herself and rolled her eyes "Fine."

She then picked up her fork and a knife and started to cut up her waffle, while Bea was dealing with Mae Lori and Selmers had already started eating. By the time Mae was half way through her breakfast everyone else had finished already, the only reason why she was behind was because she had trouble cutting a certain part of the waffle and refused to accept help, as everyone waited for Mae to finish the waiter came back around and placed the little black check book down on the table. Selmers picked up the check book and inspected it's contents "Damn, who's gonna pay for this?"

Bea motioned for Selmers to hand her the check book "I got it."

Mae swallowed her bite of waffle "Are you sure BeaBea?"

Bea pulled a card out of her pant pocket, Mae wasn't sure what kinda of card it was she didn't know the difference between a debit card and a credit card so she just called it a card, Bea put the card in the check book before looking over to Mae "Yes I'm sure, and don't call me that in public."

Selmers grinned "Awwww. Mae~ you still call Bea by her childhood nick name~."

Mae smiled "Yeah! And she called me Maeday! Together we were the most badass members of out girl scout group!"

Bea chuckled "When you weren't busy chasing wild animals around."

Mae grinned some more "And when you weren't busy trying to stop me."

Bea nodded "If I didn't that wolverine would've taken your fingers off."

Lori raised an eyebrow "You were attacked by a wolverine? I thought there hasn't been a wolverine around here since 1945."

Mae nodded "Yeah, well it wasn't around town, our girl scout group went on a.. Field trip? And it just so happened to be in the only part of this country that has wolverines... Also I wasn't attacked by the wolverine I was just getting to close."

Bea smiled "And I grabbed her shirt and pulled her away."

Mae nodded "If she hadn't... I might not be able to flip people off with my right hand."

Selmers chuckled after taking another sip of soda "Now that's some good priorities Mae."

The Cat giggled a little at that. After Bea payed the bill for breakfast everyone left the diner, once the were a few inches away from the diner Bea turned around and faced the rest of the group "I gotta get back to work, so I guess I'll see you guys at Lori's place after I get off."

Everyone gave Bea a wave as she walked away from them heading back over to her store. Mae turned to her friends "So, what do you guys wanna do now?"

Selmers shrugged "I don't care, I'm fine with whatever seems fun."

Lori took a moment to think about something fun to do when she realized "Mae, don't you have a list of stuff to do today?"

Mae nodded "Yeah. But it was made with the idea that EVERYONE was together to enjoy them, besides. I got an idea."

Selmers became slightly concerned about Mae strange expression "Mae... I don't like where this is going..."

Mae had a sly grin on her face and looked over to Selmers "Don't worry... We probably aren't gonna die."

Selmers rubbed her forehead "This isn't gonna end well."

While Selmers worried about whatever Mae's plan was Lori silently whispered to herself "I need to write this down... It'll make a great murder plot."

Mae led Selmers and Lori to... her house, Selmers and Lori both stopped in front of the fence that surrounded the entire perimeter of Mae's house, Lori was still busy scribbling down notes inside of a little note book but Selmers was dumbfounded "You got to be kidding me..."

Mae of the way to her front door when Selmers spoke, she turned around faced her "What?"

Selmers put her hands on top of the fence "What? The way you were talking made it seem like you were taking us to someplace we shouldn't be."

Mae shrugged "I get excited some times and I act weirder then I normally do."

Lori grinned and scribbled something down again "This is gold!"

Mae looked over to Lori "What's gold?"

Lori waved the hand she was holding her mechanical pencil in "Shhhhhhhh... Don't mind me, I'm just taking in all of this great content."

Mae slowly nodded her head not entirely understanding what she was talking about "Okay... Anyways let's head inside and watch a movie!"

Selmers and Lori then followed Mae into her house, Lori gawked at the house "Man!... When I said you guys live in a rich neighborhood, I just thought it was an expensive part of town to live in, not that you'd have mansion quality furniture and interior!"

Mae and Selmers both took a quick glance around the house and Selmers spoke up first "It's a dump. Just like my place."

Mae looked over to Selmers "...Thank.. You?"

Selmers and Lori then walked into the living room while Mae ran into the kitchen. Mae grabbed a bag of popcorn and tossed it into the microwave, she pressed a preset button that would cook the popcorn for as long as it needed, as it cooked Mae walked back into the living room where Selmers and Lori were already sitting on the couch, Selmers was relaxed in the couch and had her hands in her hoodie's pockets while Lori had put away her notepad-thing and pencil. Mae walked over to a slim standing cabinet that stood next to the TV, she then opened it up "So... What do we wanna watch?"

Selmers shrugged "What do ya got?"

Mae looked down to the bottom shelf in the cabinet "Well we got, Demons from Below Zero, Rocket Star, DeadBeat, Demon Tower: The Black Crusader. And the classic Night of the Living Dead."

Lori immediately perked up when she heard the name of the last movie "NightoftheLivingDead!"

She said it so fast the words all stuck together and it took a moment for both Mae and Selmers to figure out what Lori said, once Mae deciphered what Lori had said she turned around and looked at Selmers "Is that fine with you?"

Selmers nodded "Yeah it's fine, although... I haven't seen it yet, so Lori.. No matter how excited you get. Don't effing spoil anything."

Lori nodded confidently "Got it!"

Mae then tossed Selmers the Living Dead's case "Think fast!"

Selmers fumbled as she caught the case and as soon as Selmers caught the case the microwaves timer went off and Mae headed over to the kitchen. Mae came back into the living room just in time to see Selmers and Lori struggling to find a DVD player, Mae put the bowl of popcorn down on the couch and walked over to the other two "It should be right in here."

Mae then pulled a cabinet open and saw that there wasn't a DVD player in there, Selmers peered over Mae's shoulder and stared at the empty cabinet "You got an invisible player?"

Mae then saw that there was a note where the player should've been, she grabbed the note and read it out loud for everyone "Dear kitten, your mom and I have accidentally busted up the DVD player but don't worry I'm taking it in to work with me so I can have one of my work buddies fix it up so it should be ready by tonight. Love dad."

Mae groaned and crumbled up the note "Great... Wait! Hold on! That same work buddy taught us how to hook up my laptop to the TV so we could stream movies from my laptop to the TV screen!"

She then hopped up and run up stairs leaving Selmers and Lori alone in the living room, Selmers turned to Lori "Her dad still calls her kitten?"

Lori shrugged "My dad still calls me squeaker."

Selmers raised an eyebrow in confusion "Isn't that like... Racist?"

Lori shook her head "Not if the only thing you did for the first three years of your life was squeak."

Selmers nodded her head as she stood up "Ooohhh. My dad just calls me by my real name."

Lori's eyes widened again and she stood up "Real name?!"

Selmers nodded "Yeah, my real name is Selma Ann Forrester."

Lori sighed "Oh god, it's like you're a slow acting poison, every so often you give off a side effect, in this case your real name, that effects me then when it all over with... Well normally I'd die from the poison but I guess all that would happen is that I'd know your secrets."

Selmers nodded "Sometimes secrets are like a poison to our souls... You know, if it's a really bad, and or, a hard to keep secret."

Lori also nodded "I guess you're right... But it makes me wonder, is Mae and Bea keeping secrets from us?"

Selmers shook her head "Nah, well maybe. But even if they were their secrets wouldn't be to major. They don't got that exciting of a life."

Lori nodded "I guess you're right.. Again."

But what they didn't know was that Mae was standing on the second level of the house holding her laptop under her right arm, she had heard everything, and the problem was her and Bea were keeping secrets from them, they hadn't told Selmers or Lori about the murder cult, about the weird dreams she had during the whole murder cult thing, about how there's a hole with a monster inside of it right under town, about how Mae had talked with the monster, about how her and her friends killed somebody and possibly killed several others.


	3. Midday horrors

9:19 A.M. Borowski household, living room.

* * *

Mae plugged a cord into her laptop and in a port on the TV, Mae then stood up and walked over to the couch so she could get the Living Dead's case, Selmers handed Mae the case "I'm surprised that TV can even do this."

Mae replied to Selmers while also walking back over to the computer "I know right! But somehow this TV isn't as old as everyone thought or at least it came out when this kind of feature was first introduced."

She opened up the case and took out the DVD before putting it into the laptop's disk tray. Mae closed the disk tray, messed around with some tabs, waited for a little bit then ran over to the couch and sat down with everyone else, Selmers had the popcorn bowl in her lap but handed it over to Mae so everyone could have easy access to it. The three of them sat there on the couch and watched the movie, which was what they had planed on doing, but it seemed special to Mae probably because this was the first personal activity her and her new friends had done, ever. Not only that, it reminded her of when she was younger, when Casey was still around, back in high school her, Casey, and Gregg'd just sit on the couch and watch movies, a lot of them were pretty bad movies but still it got the three of them together, thinking about Casey made her feel bad because she finally knew what happened to him, he was thrown into that hole in the mines by the cultists to feed that monster, and the worst of it was that she hadn't told Casey's parents yet, neither had Gregg, they promised each other they'd tell them the truth but figuring out how to word it was a pain in the ass, before Gregg moved away Mae promised that she'd tell Casey's parents the truth all of it.

But she hadn't yet, heck, she lied to her parents about what happened during that strange series of events, she told them about her disassociative, or derealization as Dr. Hank called them, tendencies, about how certain things triggered her and made her see the world as just shapes all clumped together trying to look like the real world but failing, about how that was what made her attack her classmate Andy Cullen at the softball game, how her tendencies is what made her drop out of college, but that was as far as the truth stretched. She claimed that those weird dreams she had was caused by stressing over trying not to become disconnected from reality again, she claimed that little coma she went through when the cultists attacked her was also caused by stressing over the same thing, she didn't want to lie to them but she didn't want them to know about. The cult, the monster, what happened in her dreams, or Casey's fate, she didn't want to tell Selmers or Lori either. Mae was snapped out of her thoughts when she saw the credits begin to roll, she hopped off of the couch and turned to face her two friends, Selmers was in her natural resting face, laid back, but Lori looked like she had just eaten all of her Harfest candy and had done some kind of drug "You good Lori?"

Lori nodded "Yeah, it's just.. Watching horror movies gets me excited, it fills my brain with all sorts of ideas!"

Selmers looked over to Lori "Well that is kinda disturbing and nice at the same time."

Mae grinned slightly "Just like Bea's complements."

Selmers also grinned "Yeah."

Mae then turned around and walked over to the laptop, after she got everything unplugged, taken out, and put back where they belonged she checked a clock that was hanging up in the kitchen, which her mom had put up just one week ago, the clock read "10:56" "Wow.."

She then walked back into the living room, Lori had stood back up but Selmers was still sitting on the couch, Mae looked over to the two of them "Okay so, it's like almost eleven and I like to have lunch around that time.. You two wanna come to Taco Buck with me?"

Lori and Selmers both nodded and the three of them made their ways out of Mae's house. The three of them walked up the steps leading to the Taco Buck's front door when Mae suddenly stopped "Crap... I didn't bring any money with me... I also don't have any money at all."

Selmers chuckled "Don't worry Mae, I got you."

Mae turned around and looked at Selmers "You got a card?"

Selmers shrugged "Let's just see how much money this meal'll cost."

Mae nodded and everyone finally entered the Taco Buck. They went through the same process as the one back at the Click-Clack, after they sat down they ordered their drinks, Mae got a simple cup of ice water, Selmers got a lemonade, and Lori also got a cup of ice water, then after a little bit of waiting they then ordered their food, Mae got the "El Desamador Supremo, Ardiente, Boca" a taco that was filled with beef, cheese, salsa, spicy cheese queso, Jalapenos, topped with guacamole and sriracha, it was also fucking massive, Selmers got a chicken and cheese quesadilla, and Lori went for the simple beef and cheese taco. The waitress gave everyone their orders and left, both Selmers and Lori stared at Mae's massive taco and Selmers spoke up "Jesus Mae, your stomach is gonna actually evict it's self from your body if you eat that."

Mae rolled her eyes "You're over exaggerating things.. Trust me, I can handle this."

Lori stared at her taco then back to Mae's "But it does look good."

Selmers nodded "Yeah, yeah it does."

Then everyone started to eat, well except for Mae she was busy drooling over it, and also trying to figure out how to even eat it, Mae picked up the taco, some of it's fillings feel out as she did, and took a bite of it, it tasted heavenly until it didn't, all of the spice hit her like a freight train, her mouth watered and so did her eyes, she quickly put the taco down and took a long drink from her water. While she drank her water Selmers looked over to Mae after swallowing a bite of her quesadilla "You know, milk cancels out heat like that faster then water." Mae put the cup down and let out a sigh of relief "Yeah... But I didn't know what I wanted to have before."

Selmers nodded and took another bite out of her quesadilla. Mae picked the taco up again and took another bite out of it, this time she was ready so the spice attack didn't hit her as hard as it did before, she swallowed the bite and went in for another, but she hadn't cleared her mouth of the previous bite's spice so the two bite's spices mixed together and it made her do the same process as before, drop the taco, drink her water, get concerned looks from her friends. With every bite something felt different inside of her, with each drink of water something swelled deep inside of her, it was familiar yet foreign. Mae burped and Selmers took notice of the look on Mae's face after it "You okay? You're not looking so hot."

Lori also looked over to Mae "Yeah, you look like when I showed my dad Bloody Nights for the first time."

Mae almost burped again "Nah... I'm good, I'm good."

Selmers put her arm on Mae's shoulder "It sounds like you're trying to convince you're own mind that you are fine, not telling us you're fine."

Mae shook her head "No. I'm fine."

She then picked up her taco again and took another bite out of it now there was very little taco left, while Selmers and Lori had already finished. Selmers sighed as Mae took another bite out of her taco and stood up from the table "Okay, I'm gonna get some more napkins, cuz you clearly need it."

Selmers pointed at Mae who's chin was covered in various sauces mixed together, as well as her pants, Selmers then walked off to go get those napkins as Mae finished taking another drink of water which left the cup with only a small percent of water left in it and no ice, she placed the cup down and as she did her movements seemed sluggish, and weak which caught Lori's attention and made a concerned look grow over her face "Mae?"

But Mae wasn't paying any attention, she picked the taco up again and took another bite out of it. Then something inside of her began to change, fast, and drastically "Shit."

Mae then bolted from the table sprinting for the bathroom leaving Lori alone at the table, just as Mae entered the bathroom Selmers returned and Lori quickly explained how Mae just up and ran away which caused the both of them to run into the bathroom after her. Nobody was in the women's bathroom, well except for Selmers, Lori, and Mae. At the very end of the bathroom's stalls one's door was closed which must've been the one Mae was in, Selmers and Lori ran over to it, Selmers banged on the door "Mae?! Do- Is- Is there anything I can do? Like, can I get you something, or get someone?"

There was a few seconds of silence followed by the sound of the toilet flushing and the door creaking open revealing Mae standing in front of Selmers, her face drained of life, and a genuinely disgusted and discomforted look on her face. Selmers crouched down in front of Mae "What happened?" Mae looked into Selmers' eyes which were full of concern, but the cat's eyes were not, they were devoid of any real emotions "I... I threw up..."

Selmers looked over to Lori "Go get like... Go ask the staff for a wet towel and bring it here."

Lori nodded and ran out of the room, Selmers led Mae over to one of the bathroom's sinks and started to wash her face with some cold water "Okay, so, in the future... Don't effing eat stuff like that!"

But Mae wasn't listening she was too busy enjoying the comfort that the cold water gave her, when Lori reentered the room holding a wet towel just like Selmers had asked for, Mae looked at Lori with the mirror over to her left which was hanging over the sink "That was fast"

Lori nodded "Yeah, they could already tell what was wrong so when I asked for the towel they just gave it to me for free."

Mae smiled slightly "Free taco towel for me."

Selmers rolled the towel up and placed it on the back of Mae's neck "There, now let's go sit outside and get some fresh air."

Lori looked away from Mae and over to Selmers "What about the food?"

Selmers sighed "Right... We'll pay for it, just we gotta help Mae out."

Lori nodded and the three of them led Mae out of the bathroom and outside. Mae sat down on the top step next to the front door and both Selmers and Lori sat down with her, Selmers had her right arm wrapped around Mae's back and was rubbing Mae's left arm with her right hand, but Lori had yet to touch Mae which was probably a side effect of her being socially awkward, Mae looked up to Selmers' still concerned face "You know... You'd make a great parent someday..."

Selmers sat there silently for a moment "I actually have a kid I've never seen."

Lori looked over to Selmers slightly shocked seeing as how for the past few hours Selmers has done almost nothing other then blow Lori's mind "Really? How?"

Selmers shrugged slightly trying to keep Mae's head resting against her chest "Well, I was pregnant with Dennis' kid, and of course gave birth to it, which is why I'm so... Big, but anyways, after we left each other Dennis took the kid with him... The last thing I've heard, which was two years ago, she's living with Dennis' sister all the way in New York."

Lori sat there silently but Mae spoke up "New York isn't that far from Michigan... You could see em' someday."

Selmers sighed "That's a nice thought Mae... But look at me, I'm an adult living with her parents, in some dump of a city that only people born here knows about, with no job, that spends most of her time writing poems, hanging out with a fifteen year old kid, and a twenty something adult that's in the same boat as she is.. No kid needs to know that bout their parent, maybe someday I'll get to meet her but not for the next few possible years."

Mae sat there silently but Lori spoke up "How did you know I was fifteen?"

Selmers shrugged slightly again "Just a wild guess."

Lori grinned and rolled her eyes, and that little sentence made Mae smile slightly which made her feel much better. After a few minutes of sitting together Mae finally started to feel much better which allowed Selmers to go back inside and pay for their meals. Mae looked over to Lori "You've been quite."

Lori nodded "Yeah, It's just... Well I'm hanging out with a bunch of adults, Bea's twenty, you're twenty, and Selmers, she's, she's... How old is Selmers?"

Mae shrugged "She only ever said that she was a little older them me."

Lori sighed "Anyways. I fell like I have a lot of expectations to uphold, even though I know I don't but I still feel, panicked around you guys."

Mae sat there silently thinking for a bit "Well... Bea maybe twenty but that doesn't mean she acts like it, she acts like an old lady sometimes but she doesn't always acted like an adult, I definitely don't act like an adult, and Selmers is so laid back she doesn't act like any age, unless of course something happens and she has to get serious about it... So, don't worry you fit right in. Hell all that hyper energy you get after watching a horror movie is nothing compared to how Gregg acts sometimes."

Lori grinned "Thanks Mae."

She smiled "No problem."

Just then Selmers walked back out of Taco Buck "Everything's been paid for, although it's much cheaper then it should've been. Probably because you puked in there."

Mae's smile grew a bit more and she stood up which surprised Selmers slightly "Whoa Borowski! You just launched like, all of your lunch, most of your breakfast, like almost all of that water, and some popcorn out of your body let it rest."

Mae shrugged and handed Selmers the almost dry towel "Eh, my body's used to puking like that."

Selmers chuckled "And just how do you know that?"

Mae stood there and thought about it for a moment "Well, recently I've thrown up at a party in the woods, which was caused by shitty beer, then I threw up at Doughnut Wolf after eating their absolutely heavenly doughnuts, and if we were to go threw all of my life then we'd be here for a while... Also my doughnut puke was rainbow colored."

Selmers sighed but Lori spoke up as she stood up "That doesn't seem healthy, having vomit colored like a rainbow."

Mae shrugged and from behind them Bea called out "She's suck a lightweight I'm surprised she doesn't puke after SEEING a rainbow."

Mae spun around "Bea? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

Bea sighed "Mae, it's like... three in the after noon. Ever since I hired that Danny guy for full time... Again, I've been able to get off at this time. Remember?"

Mae thought to herself " _We were in there for that long? Better yet, I took that long to eat an effing taco?_ "

Bea rolled her eyes at Mae "Anyways, we gonna head over to Lori's place and make that movie of her's?"

Everyone nodded and with that they all followed Lori as she made her way back over to her house.


	4. Horror in the Woods

3:34 P.M. Lori's house.

* * *

Lori opened up the front door of her house, the house was out in the woods similar to Mrs. Miranda's house one of Bea's costumers, a crazy costumer, in fact as Mae entered the house she realized that the place was exactly like Mrs. Miranda's although there was a bit more furniture, everyone funneled into the house all except for Bea who was busy using up the last of her cigarette so she could be respectful towards Lori and put it out outside. The TV was in the same place as the TV in Miranda's place but there was a worn red cushioned couch sitting in front of it, there was also a rectangle ottoman in the same color as the couch sitting in between the couch and TV. Lori walked into the middle of the living room "And this is my place!"

Selmers walked over to the couch "Cool."

She then sat down on it and Bea started to walk towards the kitchen "If you don't mind me asking... Where's your dad?"

Lori turned around and looked over to Bea as she inspected the pipes under the kitchen sink "My dad works a lot and his schedule almost always has him working long nights."

Bea nodded and finished inspecting the pipes "Mae knows that feeling... Also who did these pipes?"

Lori shrugged "Some guy called... Levy? Yeah I think it was Levy, he was like, some sort of independent... Plumber."

Mae's ears perked up "Hey, I remember Steve Scriggins mentioning somebody called Levy. And somebody called Beth."

Selmers chuckled "Isn't Steve that guy who locked a teacher inside of a high school closet during Longest Night?"

Mae nodded "Yeah!.. Except I don't know anything about Levy or Beth other then one of them locked Steve inside of the Food Donkey's animatronic storage room thing."

Selmers shuddered "Even though I've never seen them in person, in fact I've only seen them through some of my parent's childhood pictures, I HATED them they're just so... Creepy."

Lori started to dig her sketch pad out of her pocket "Well I've always thought that they... Well yes were creepy, but they inspired me! Check this out!"

She then showed everyone, except for Bea who was busy at the moment grabbing herself a cup of water, a page in her sketch pad. The specific page showed sketches of a demonic version of the Food Donkey's frog robot "Isn't it cool?"

Mae nodded "Yeah it actually is pretty cool... I'd see a movie based off of this character."

Selmers nodded "And as for my opinion... This is a direct representation of my nightmares about 'em."

Lori smiled widely which made both Mae and Selmers feel good and smile as well. Bea walked back into the living room holding a tall green plastic cup filled with water "So.. Are we ready to film this movie?"

Lori's eyes widened in shock and she quickly shoved her sketch pad back into her pocket "Oh yeah! Wait here I'll be back!"

She then ran off into the rest of the house, Bea and Mae both sat down on the couch next to Selmers. After a few minutes of waiting on the couch Lori reentered the living room, Mae hopped off of the couch excited to see what Lori had gone to get. Lori was holding a rather large camera in her right hand, and was holding a some sort of yellow jacket "Okay so. I just need everyone to try this one real quick... Not at once though."

Bea stood up placing her now empty cup on a table next to the couch Mae hadn't seen yet "I'll go first."

She then walked over to the yellow jacket and slipped it on. The jacket looked either like a heavy duty rain jacket, or a protective jacket for miners, the jacket was really small on Bea only reaching down to the top of her knees although the sleeves were the perfect length for her "I look stupid."

Lori sighed nodding "Kinda... Alright who's next?"

Mae quickly raised her hand up "Me!"

Bea chuckled at the cat's enthusiasm and took off the jacket, she then handed it to Mae and as she started to get into the jacket Bea asked a question that she should've asked before putting on the jacket "So what's the point of everyone putting on that jacket?"

Mae struggled to get her right arm through the jacket's sleeve luckily Lori was there to help and answer Bea's question "So this is the jacket for my movie's monster, The Miner, and I don't know how'll fit into it so I'm having everyone try it on."

Bea nodded as she stood there watching Mae get into the jacket. After a little wriggling and some help Mae finally slipped into the jacket, it was almost perfect all except for the sleeves which completely engulfed Mae's arms so it made her look more like a child then she normally did herself "I feel stupid wearing this."

Lori inspected Mae "The only problem is the size of the sleeves, which I can fix... Unless Selmers wants to try it on?"

Selmers shook her head "Nah, I'm fine."

Lori clasped her hands together "Great! Alright Mae stay here I'll be right back."

Lori then ran off back into the rest of the house. Bea inspected the jacket "It looks like a hazmat suit. And smells like a rubber glove. Seems perfect for an evil miner outfit."

Mae nodded "Although I didn't know I was gonna be the bad guy."

Selmers turned around on the couch and poked her head over the back of the sofa so she could look at Mae "Honestly... If it were like, black and there wasn't that much light. You could pass your self off as a ghost."

Mae looked at herself imaging what Selmers had suggested, but as she did a thought kept on nagging at the back of her mind, she kept on imaging Eide a member of the murder cult. Before Mae knew about the cult she thought Eide was a ghost who abducted children, but of course now she knew that Eide was not a ghost, sadly that still didn't explain how he did a lot of the things he did, he'd just appear at one place and disappear in another, he'd effortlessly chase after her and her friends over any terrain as if it didn't effect him, he also somehow managed to sneak up on her and her friends in the mine, somehow appearing in the elevator Mae's back was to at the time, he just appeared with a few flickers of the elevator's light and BOOM there he was, the unexplained mysteries scared Mae. But his mysteries weren't the only thing scaring her about him, his entire look also scared her, he wore a long red cloak much like the rest of the cult, but his seemed dirtier somehow, he also wore a gas mask that had a broken filter on it which made him look as if he had a long snout, and his eyes. She never really got a good look at his eyes, except for when he grabbed her in the mine, his eyes pierced through her like how she imagined her nightmare eyes pierced through people, except his eyes seemed off, like the shouldn't be there, and his voice, his voice haunted her, almost as if it was TRYING to burn it's self into her mind, if she thought about it, she could still hear his scream as the elevator fell taring his arm off freeing Mae from his grasp.

Mae could then hear the sound of Lori running back over to the rest of the group, which knocked her out of her thoughts, that was happening to her a lot recently. Lori stopped in front of Mae, she was holding a box of what Mae could only assume was sowing supplies "You know how to sow?"

Lori shrugged "Kinda... I can fix things like sleeves that are to long, or to short, but I can't make things myself."

She then placed the box into the floor and opened it up, she grabbed a needle and a yellow ball of yarn or something like that "Okay. No matter what happens don't move."

Bea chuckled slightly "That's ominous."

Lori sighed "This is my first time working on a moving target."

Mae's face quickly grew a worried look on it "First, I don't like needles or at least ones that aren't for medical use. And second, I don't like being called a moving target."

Lori then sighed again "I'm sorry."

She then got to work folding up the sleeves and sowing certain spots to make the sleeves shorter. Bea nursed on her cup of water not in any real hurry and Selmers continued to stare over the back of the couch, after a few minutes Lori finally finished fixing the sleeves, she stepped back from Mae "There!"

Mae took a look at her arms and she could see her hands again "Cool."

Selmers spoke up from the couch "Does that mean we're ready to start the movie making process?"

Lori nodded "Yeah follow me."

She then started to walk back into the rest of the house, Selmers hopped off of the couch and followed the rest of the group as they followed Lori. Lori led everyone into what could only be assumed to be her bedroom, her bed was sitting against the room's right wall right side, and the rest of the room had random things thrown everywhere with no rhyme or reason. Lori sat down on her bed and opened up a laptop that was sitting on the bed "So... Selmers, would you be fine with being the first person to die in the movie?"

Selmers shrugged "Yeah I'm fine with it."

Lori nodded and started to type something "Alright, Bea I've already downloaded all the necessary audio apps onto my computer so give me a moment and you can have it."

Bea nodded and let herself lean against the wall to her right "Got it."

After some more clicking and typing Lori eventually closed the laptop and handed it to Bea who slid it under her left arm, Lori hopped off of the bed which caused it to creak and shudder slightly "Okay so if you guys wouldn't mind I'd like to have a quick conversation alone with Mae."

Bea and Selmers then both left the room leaving Lori and Mae, who was still wearing the yellow jacket, alone together in the bedroom. Lori sat down on the bed and let out a massive sigh "Oh. My. God... This is like, oddly stressful."

Mae sat down next to Lori "How so?"

Lori looked over to Mae with a discomforted look on her face which must've been caused by her finally letting the stress out "I. I. I just feel like I can't screw up around you guys... I know I shouldn't, this is like a dumb movie that we're making for fun.. But I still feel like I can't mess up, that if I do you'll.. You'll.. I dunno, be mad, or disappointed in me..."

Mae put her hand on Lori's shoulder "Hey, even if you do mess up.. It won't make me, or any of us, mad or disappointed. For all you know it could make us laugh... Besides, I'm getting stressed out right now! I'm doing something that I'm horrible at!"

Lori giggled slightly "Being nice?"

Mae shook her head "Nope. Giving pep talks."

Lori's slight giggles turned into silent laughter which made Mae feel good inside. After Lori stopped laughing she sat there silently for a moment and Mae took her arm off of Lori's shoulder, eventually Lori looked back over to Mae "This may seem weird.. But you're like the mother I... Don't.. Have."

Mae looked over to Lori slightly in shock "Really? Me of all people? Like, Selmers is literally a mother. And you chose me?"

Lori shrugged "Yeah, you're just... So... COOL. Like, you take almost everything in stride, even throwing up you just hop right back up and keep going.. And you also like my dumb little movie ideas."

Mae's mind couldn't help but not replay Lori's words over and over again in her mind, all the while thinking to herself " _She thinks I'm cool? Again out of all people she's met, and I'M cool?_ "

Lori then took in a deep breath "Okay... So the real reason why I wanted to talk alone was so I could tell you about your character, the Miner."

Mae nodded "Okay, lay it on me."

Lori then reached into her pocket and pulled out her sketch book, while she flipped through her pages she continued to talk to Mae "So the jacket isn't the only piece of clothing the Miner has, it's also got a pair of heavy duty cargo pants, and it also wears a big old hard hat with a head lamp strapped to it's front, which is always on. You also carry around a pickax."

She then showed Mae the page she was looking for, it showed a person wearing the same cloths as what Mae would soon be wearing, it was also holding the pickax Lori spoke of, there was also a bunch of different notes giving minor details on the Miner, such as how nobody would ever see the Miner's face "Oh cool."

Lori nodded "This is, in my personal preference, my most well done illustration of one of my ideas."

Mae nodded as she continued to star at the page "Yeah it's really well done... So was that it?"

Lori raised her eyebrow in confusion "What?"

Mae shrugged "Like was that all you want to talk to me about? Or?"

Lori nodded slowly "Oooooohhhhhh... No I got a few more, so first, no matter what happens you can't say anything. But heavy breathing is fine, also I would love if you could like... Limp around, as if your leg is broken."

Mae nodded "Okay got, no talking, breathing is fine, and limp around."

Lori smiled "Yeah! Okay, NOW that's everything we can head out."

The both of them then hopped off of the bed and walked out of the bedroom. Mae and Lori walked back into the living room where Bea and Selmers were waiting for the others. Bea was sitting on the couch next to Selmers and at some point in time after she left the bedroom she'd gotten herself another cup of water, and one of them had turned on the TV and either they didn't care enough to change the channel or they genuinely wanted to watch some Garbo and Malloy "So Garbo, how's your day been?"

"Well Malloy, I've spent my time with some of my friends."

"But Garbo, you haven't been around the office during the day."

"That's because Malloy, I spent all day inside my house."

"But how did you spend time with your friends?"

"That's because my friends are.. A nice bowl of cereal and a good TV show."

"Like our show Garbo?"

"No Malloy, like Summer Walkers or Devastators."

"Welp... See you after the break, if we don't get a copyright strike, where me and Garbo mess around with illegal fireworks."

"Now that's a whoppah!"

Bea then picked up a remote and turned off the TV "Is there a reason why you two just sat there and watched that shitty show?"

Lori and Mae both looked at each other and they both figured that Bea was talking to them so Mae spoke up "I dunno... I may hate that show, but, something about it oddly captivates me, at least when it's on, once it's not on it's.. Well.. Shitty."

Lori shrugged "Yeah the show kinda sucks... But I like those two, I think they're cute together."

Bea stood up still holding the cup of water "Heh, you do you Lori... So are we ready now?"

Lori nodded "Yes we're ready."

Selmers also got off the couch and walked over to Mae and Lori "Alright let's get started."

Mae stood outside of Lori's house wearing the full Miner outfit, heavy cargo pants, a hard hat with a head lamp strapped to it, and of course the jacket she hadn't taken off since she put it on, she was also holding a pickax Lori's father had used back when he worked in a coal mine like Mae's dad. Inside the house was Selmers and Lori, Lori was giving Selmers some last minute pointers, and standing behind Mae was Bea holding a video camera, at first Lori was gonna film everything but them Bea offered to film and Lori was fine with it. Mae gripped the pickax nervously and Bea took note of how nervous Mae was "Hey, you're gonna do fine. All you gotta do is chase Selmers around the house."

Mae took in a deep breath "Yeah... Yeah... I'm fine... I'll do fine."

Then Lori crawled through a window next to the front door "Alright! Bea head inside."

Bea nodded and slipped through the window Lori had just came out of, Lori then walked over to Mae "Alright, remember what you need to do?"

Mae nodded nervously "Yeah, I do, chase Selmers around a little then killer her."

Lori nodded a big smile on her face "Also if you need to get into character just like... I dunno think some sadistic thoughts or something."

Then three loud knocks were heard from inside which caused Lori to smile even larger "Alright! Here we go!"

Mae took in a deep breath and started to count to twenty all the while thinking of different borderline sadistic thoughts, but there was one thought that made her really get into character, the thought of playing base ball with some lights from the Snack Falcon with Gregg. Inside the house Bea filmed Selmers sitting on couch watching TV, while outside Mae slowly walked/limped to the front door and Lori used a flash light to simulate lightning, Mae's shadow was visible through the window Bea and Lori had used to enter and exit the house, Mae stopped just in front of the door and on the other side Selmers had got up and had cautiously walked over to the door all the while Bea was still fallowing her with the camera trained on Selmers, Mae held the pickax skyward and waited for the door to open, Selmers slowly grabbed the door nob and twisted it, she pulled the door open, and quickly dodged the controlled fall of the pickax. Selmers did her best movie scream and ran towards the hall, Mae picked the pickax back up and gripped it with both her hands as she fallowed Selmers through the house, Selmers ran down the hall where Lori's bedroom was and Mae slowly walked/limped after her, Mae secretly had a big smile on her face, she was having fun, and deep down inside of Selmers she was also having fun, of course she couldn't show it, behind Mae Bea was following her still filming. Selmers ran into the house's bathroom and closed the door, she slammed her back against it and waited to hear Mae getting closer, eventually Mae was just a few inches away from the door which meant Selmers could relax and let Mae shove the door open, Mae used her left hand to shove the door open and Selmers faked a fall onto the ground, Mae stood over Selmers in the bath room and Bea was standing on both of their right sides, Mae hefted the pickax up into the air, Selmers did her movie scream again, and Mae brought the pickax down.

Bea turned off the camera and Selmers stood up, Mae dropped the pickax and let it hit the ground "That thing... Is effing HEAVY!"

Bea stared at the pickax then looked at Mae "I'm surprised you could swing it around like that."

Mae shrugged "Eh, once you get in the zone it's not that bad, when you drop it and let your musculus relax THAT'S when you realize how heavy it was."

Bea began to walk out of the room "Heh, what musculus."

Mae rolled her eyes and followed Bea out of the bathroom with Selmers by her side, Lori stumbled through the window in excitement "How'd it go!?"

Bea handed her the camera "Everything went just like how you planed."

Lori's already big smile grew even bigger "I can't want to check this out!"

Selmers coughed slightly "Hope you like it.. Screaming like that has like, turned my throat inside out."

Mae took of the hard hat revealing that she had some bad hat hair, her partially dyed hair was all kinds of messy "And may I say, that pickax is really heavy."

Lori shrugged "If we could I would've had a lighter replica made. But of course I don't have that kind of money or time."

Mae nodded as she continued to take off the Miner costume "I mean it's fine, it's just I could've killed Selmers if I messed up a swing or something."

Selmers shrugged "Nah, I'm sure you wouldn't have hit me. Although I do believe that if you messed up a swing you would've missed me COMPLETELY."

Mae rolled her eyes "Yeah whatever... So we done here Lori?"

She nodded "Yeah that's all for today!"

Mae smiled "Awesome. Now that means we can do the last thing on my list."

Bea snorted slightly "Heh, yeah, that list of yours I completely forgot about it."

Mae's smile turned into a sly one "Yeah well I didn't. So let's get going... After I put my pants back on."

She then ran back towards the hall heading for Lori's bedroom so she could put her original pair of pants back on. Mae led everyone out of the house and towards the woods, she actually had no clue where in the woods she was but she knew the trees well enough to know when they were to far away from Possum Springs, the area of the woods closest to Lori's house was rocky and congested luckily Mae could effortlessly hop, and climb over everything, and so could Lori but as for Selmers and Bea, the two of them were having a little bit of a hard time, Bea wasn't having that bad of a time but she couldn't climb over things as well as Lori or Mae, then there was Selmers she was having a very hard time, she couldn't climb over everything like Mae, or Lori, hell she was having a harder time then Bea. Her shoes were also not fairing to well in that type of terrain, it wasn't like they legitimately couldn't handle rocks, dirt, or gravel they could just not comfortably, but she never had the others stop, she kept on pushing which was probably good, hiking was a great kind of exercise but she hand't prepared for this kind of exercise so it wasn't all that pleasant of a surprise when the terrain turned from smooth grass, to hard gravel and rocks. Eventually the ground smoothed out and became slightly better, there was still the odd patch of gravel, or random twig but for the most part it was better then before, it was easier for Selmers to walk and maneuver then before which was good for everyone, everyone walked up the side of a slope leading up to a clear part of the woods, no trees, no rocks, nothing, but it seemed oddly familiar to Mae and Bea although they were still on a side of the woods Mae and Bea hadn't been to yet.

Mae stood on top of a little rock on the hill "Wow, this is... I dunno a tall hill? Or something, I actually don't even being to know what to call this thing."

Bea took a look around their surroundings "But, like, doesn't it... Feel... Familiar?"

Mae shrugged "Kinda, but I have yet to see anything that triggers anything within my mind."

Lori turned around and stared at the direction of her house "I've never been this far into the woods."

Selmers also turned around but she stared at the dim and far away lights of Possum Springs "The city where me and Dennis used to live together in was close to a lake so it was surrounded by water on almost all of it's sides. But he'd occasionally take me out onto the lake on a boat he either actually rented out, or stole, and it kinda looked like this.. The city's lights off in the distance, surrounded by nature on almost all sides, it's one of the reasons why I got into poetry."

Bea turned her head and looked over to Selmers "You know... It seems as though you have some good memories of Dennis."

Selmers shrugged "Nah.. **I** was staring at the city's lights, he was staring at my tits."

Bea put her hand into her pocket and pulled out her packet of cigarettes, she hadn't gotten herself another cigarette since she put out the one she had before over at Lori's house "Wow... First, that's kinda, sad, and douche-y. Second, I'm not sure how I feel about talking about... That kind of stuff around Lori."

She turned back around and looked at Bea "No, no, I'm fine with it. I am fifteen after all."

Mae nodded "Yeah! Lori's fine with it! Now we can talk about tits ALL day and night!"

Bea pulled out a cigarette and put the packet back inside of her pocket "Mae... No."

Mae grew a big smile "MAE YES!"

Selmers sighed and face-palmed herself "Oh god what have I done?"

Bea then grabbed her lighter from her other pocket and light the cigarette she still had in her hand "Don't worry, she'll stop eventually."

Mae punched her hands up into the air her fists clenched "NEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Bea put the cigarette in her mouth and took a drag off of it before blowing the smoke out of her mouth "Trust me she'll stop-"

"NO!"

"...Eventually.".

Mae ran up and down the elevated plain of ground at Bea's demand so she could "Calm the eff down."

As she put it, while Bea, Lori, and Selmers both sat on the ground well Lori was laying down staring up at the night sky. As Mae ran by the rest of her friend group she tripped on something causing her to fall flat on her face, Bea looked over to Mae "What you trip on?"

Mae picked herself up off of the ground groaning slightly "I dunno..."

She then turned around and inspected the spot where she tripped at "WHOA! HOLY SHIT CHECK THIS OUT!"

Bea, Selmers, and Lori all got up and walked over to Mae who was pointing at something on the ground, it was the unmistakable shape of a black, slightly covered in dirt and grass, handgun, Selmers' eyes widened in shock "Wow... What kind of gun is that?"

Lori squatted down and inspected the handgun "...It's a Beretta M9 handgun."

Bea looked over to Lori "How did you figure that out so fast?"

Lori shrugged "I've done SO much research on weapons of any kind, I kind figure that kind of stuff out just like that."

Selmers also squatted down to look at the gun closer "The better question is why is it out here?"

Mae thought about various ideas as to why a handgun would be all the way out here, when her mind suddenly made a connection between an encounter with Eide and the cult, and this handgun. She remembered how someone, possibly Eide, tried to shoot her, the shock and terror of the sound of the gun being fired and the bullet whizzing past her ear caused her to slip and tumble down a slope causing her to fall into some kind of coma, was this the gun that almost killed her? Was this the gun that caused her to fall into some kind of coma? "Let's fuck around with it."

Lori looked up to Mae in confusion "What?"

Mae shrugged "We can just like, head farther into the woods. Or stay right here, and shoot it for a bit."

Bea looked at Mae and blow a puff of smoke out of her mouth up into the air "That's like... Super illegal. First off, we aren't the owners of this gun. And second, none of us have gun licenses so even if we did own it we couldn't even shoot it."

Mae looked at Bea "Nobody's gonna find out."

Bea sighed "Doesn't matter! It's... Illegal!"

"Why now? I've done a ton of illegal stuff before."

"Yeah! But those were small crimes! Nobody's gonna give you a big ass sentence for shop lifting a belt buckle!"

"But again! Nobody's gonna find out! Nobody found out about me swiping that belt buckle!"

"MAE! JUST! NO! WHAT'S MAKING YOU THINK THIS IDEA IS FINE!?"

"I- I- I- I."

Mae then stormed away from Bea, Lori, and Selmers in a huff and sat down a few inches away from them just out of ear shot. Lori and Selmers looked at each other in confusion not sure what to make of that exchange Bea and Mae had just no, Bea sighed and walked over to Mae, she sat down next to the cat and took a drag off of her cigarette when Mae spoke up "I'm sorry."

Bea blew out a cloud of smoke out of her mouth and looked over to Mae "About what?"

Mae sighed "I'm sorry about trying to get us to mess around with that handgun... I just... I just think that, THAT was the gun that fired the bullet that tried to kill me a year ago, the same bullet that caused me to fall into a coma after, falling. I just wanted to try and get over that memory, I just wanted to feel like last year's events have come and gone, that they don't effect me anymore."

Bea took the cigarette out of her mouth and held it with her right hand "So then why didn't you say something?"

Mae sighed again "I haven't told Lori or Selmers about last year."

Bea slowly shook her head "Why haven't you?"

Mae tried to find the right words to describe her reasoning "I- Cuz- Well... Because I'm scared that I'll drive them away by telling them about all of that weird crap."

Bea sat there silently while she put her cigarette back into her mouth and took another drag off of it "Well... How they react is up to themselves, but I doubt they'll run from you. Hell Lori'll might just become annoying asking you all sorts of stuff about those events for inspiration, and Selmers doesn't seem like the type to run from someone like you."

Mae looked over to Bea feeling slightly better about herself "Thanks BeaBea."

Bea smiled "No problem."

She then stood up "Alright, let's go."

Mae hopped up off of the ground "What are we gonna do now?"

Bea looked over her shoulder and stared at Mae as the two walked back over to Lori and Selmers "Let's shoot some trees."

Mae gasped "REALLY!?"

Bea nodded and Mae continued "What's made you change your mind?!"

Bea grinned "Only one person in a friend group should be depressed. And I've already got that title."

Mae giggled slightly "Bea, the depressed one of the group."

"Crazy enough to let Mae shoot live fire arms around her."

Mae then thought about a really good question "What if it isn't loaded? What if it doesn't work anymore?"

Bea shrugged "Then we'll go... 'Welp shit, looks like we gotta hide this now.' and toss it somewhere and hope that it never comes back around and bites us in the ass."

Mae nodded "Sounds like a plan."

Lori, who had stood up after Bea sat down with Mae, looked over to Bea and Mae "What sounds like a plan?"

Mae then walked over to the M9 and picked it up "We're gonna shot the eff outa some plants."

Selmers then looked over to Bea in shock "Really?"

Bea nodded "Yeah."

"We're all gonna die."

Bea nodded again "Yeah.".


	5. End of the Day

Mae stood on top of the little rock she stood on when they first arrived there proudly holding the handgun while Lori and Selmers both still couldn't believe that Bea thought this was a good idea, and that she was fine with it. Lori gripped bother of her hands on the sides of her sketch pad, her nerves were going haywire "Mae? Is this really... A good idea?"

Mae nodded confidently "Yes! I am one hundred percent sure this is the best of ideas!"

Bea blew a puff of smoke out of her mouth "Okay, alright, Mae you better come up with a plan before I change my mind."

Mae rolled her eyes "I don't need a plan! All we gotta do is figure out who's going first, who's going last, and then fill in the middle with who ever's left!"

Bea shook her head sighing "No Mae, I mean is this really the best spot to be shooting a gun? Aren't you the least bit worried about someone hearing us?"

Mae shrugged "Nah I'm not worried at all... I mean who'd come all the way out here? The mine is like."

Mae then pointed to her right and just circled her arm around "In that general area, and it's no where near any kind of hunting season... I think, we don't have anything to be worried about."

Bea rolled her eyes "Fine."

Mae smiled widely "Awesome! Okay so who wants to go first?"

Lori lifted her first finger off of the sketch pad so she could point at Mae "Shouldn't you go first?"

Mae stood there thinking for a moment "...So... Who's going second?"

Bea couldn't help but grin at Mae when she finished her sentence "I'll go second."

Mae's smile grew bigger "Who's third?"

Selmers raised her hand "I can go third.. Unless Lori wants to?"

Lori shook her head "N- N... I'm fine with going last."

Selmers shrugged "Alright."

Mae hopped off of the small rock and, she landed, she immediately spun around and pointed the gun towards the direction she was once standing in "Is every one ready?"

Bea used both of her hands to cover her ears, Lori used her hands to fold her ears down onto the sides of her head, and Selmers stuck her fingers into her ears "We're all good Mae!"

Her ears then folded down onto the top of her head, she took in a deep breath, she slowly squeezed the trigger... and suddenly the gun fired off a shot, the kick back of the gun, and the very sudden flash of light caused Mae to drop the gun, but when it hit the ground it fired off another shot which hit right into the rock which Mae was once standing on before, once the gun fired off it's accidental shot she jump up in surprise and landed directly onto her butt. Bea walked over to the gun and picked it up by the end of it's grip, she held it as if it was contaminated "Okay, so... Mae doesn't EVER get to shoot guns again."

Mae's ears perked up off of the top of her head "BeaBea I'm really, really, really sorry I- I just panicked and-"

Bea sighed "Mae, it's- it's fine. Just, please don't ever do that again."

Mae rubbed her left eye which had some tears forming inside of it "O- Okay.. I like fighting with bats more a- any ways."

She then stood up and walked over to where Bea was standing and sat down while Bea walked to where Mae was once standing. Bea aimed the gun in the same direction as Mae, she had taken sum of her cigarette butts and stuffed them into her ears, Lori and Selmers still had their ear's covered, and Mae folded her ears down again, Bea squeezed the trigger of the gun and it fired off another shot, the kick back caused Bea to stagger but she didn't drop the gun, Lori took her fingers out of her ears and rubbed them against her hoodie brushing off whatever was inside of her ears "Huh, you didn't drop the gun."

Bea handed Selmers the gun and took out the makeshift ear buds "You don't say?"

Selmers shrugged "I didn't know what else to say."

Bea then handed Selmers the makeshift ear buds, Selmers put them inside of her ears and she took aim, she squeezed the trigger, and the gun fired off again, the kick back caused her arms to jiggle slightly but nothing else, although Mae could see the bullet zoom pass the trees. Selmers took out Bea makeshift ear buds and handed them to Lori "I'm surprised that this thing is still fully loaded."

Lori stared at the small ear buds "Um, wait!"

She then took out her sketch pad and tore out some blank pages she then crumpled them up before sticking them in her ears "There."

Selmers then handed the gun to Lori, who as soon as she got it did something surprising, she took aim but she held it one handed unlike everyone else who used both their hands to grip the gun, her eyes then squinted and she quickly squeezed the trigger, she fired off a shot, then another, and yet another, she continued to fire, the time in between the shots shortening until there was only a few milliseconds in between them, not only that but each shot hit some part of a tree she was aiming at. Eventually the gun's slide locked it's self signifying it was out of bullets, she let her arm fall down to her side and she took out the crumpled pieces of papers, she looked over to everyone else "I. Uh.. My uncle was a soldier."

Selmers took the gun and gawked at her "Wow, just, wow.. That was effing cool!"

Mae nodded as she hopped up off of the ground "YEAH! YOU COULD LIKE! TAKE OUT A BIRD FROM A GAZILLION FUCKING MILES AWAY!"

Bea took one last drag off of her cigarette before tossing it at the ground and she puffed out a cloud of smoke "Yeah that was actually cool... But also kinda scary."

Lori scratched the back of her head "Heh heh, yeah."

Mae ran over to Lori her eyes wide with excitement "Don't listen to Bea! Being feared by people is awesome! You can push people around and tell them what to do without really trying!"

Bea scoffed "Don't listen to Mae, nobody's scared of her.. She's just annoying."

Mae rolled her eyes "I annoy those that deserve it! I am annoying ma- women! Hero of Possum Springs, I am not the hero this town needs, I am the hero it deserves! I AM THE NIG-"

Bea lightly "smacked" the back of Mae's head just enough to make her stop "Mae just shut up... First, you are not a super hero, and if you are you're the worst one ever. And second, you got that quote wrong."

Mae rolled his eyes "Yeah whatever.. Anyways what should we do next?"

Lori scratched the inside of her right ear which was slightly irritated because of the papers "I'm actually kinda tried so... I'd kinda like to head home and go to bed."

Selmers nodded "Yeah, I should head home too. My parents want me home at a certain time."

Bea's eyes looked over to Selmers "You still live with your parents? And you still have a curfew?"

Selmers shrugged "Yeah I had to move back in with them after I got tossed into jail, that's also why I still got a curfew."

Bea raised a brow inquisitively "What did you do?"

"I was an opioid addict, stole some some painkillers from the Ham Panther which is what got me thrown in jail.. Heh luckily that same jail had a rehab program which is what got me clean and unaddicted to those stupid opioids."

"Wow."

Selmers nodded "Yeah."

Mae looked over to Lori "You aren't? Surprised that she was jailed once?"

Lori shook her head "Nah, my exhaustion is hitting me hard. And I currently don't give a shit about anything."

Mae nodded seeing that Lori was forming large bags under her eyes "Yeah that's fair... I guess we should all be heading home now."

Bea nodded now looking at both Mae and Lori "Yeah let's go."

Bea then led everyone towards Lori's house so they could drop Lori off there. Bea walked along side Mae as they headed over to the Borowski household, they had dropped Selmers off at her house which was just a few feet away from the apartment Bea lived in, but instead of Bea going home before Selmers she was walking along side Mae heading to her house. Mae looked over to Bea as she walked on the top of someone's white picket fence "Why are you heading home with me?"

Bea's eyes looked over to Mae and she shrugged "Why not?"

Mae hopped off of the fence and onto a mailbox, she then hopped off of it and landed on the ground before shrugging "It's just that you don't always do it. And I wanted to know, why now?"

Bea looked behind herself and looked at the fence and mailbox that Mae was once standing on, the mailbox's front hatch had opened up when Mae jumped off of it "...I... I don't have a reason, guess I'm not tried yet and I wanted to burn off the excess energy."

Mae raised an eyebrow in confusion "Excess energy?"

Bea nodded "Yeah the thing that fuels you every hour of the day."

Mae rolled her eyes "Yeah yeah. Welp we're here."

Mae and Bea stood in front of the walkway leading up to Mae's front door. Bea tapped Mae's shoulder with the back of her hand "See ya' latter."

Mae turned around and faced Bea "See ya' latter BeaBea!"

Bea turned around and walked up the sidewalk heading to her apartment, as she did Mae waved to her and Bea waved back. Mae stepped into the foyer of her house and closed the door behind her, she could smell the amazing scent of food being cooked, and honestly Mae didn't care what was being cooked she was hungry she'd eat it, like always her father sat in the living room watching TV and Mae could tell the very second she heard one single specific sound come from the TV that told her exactly what her father was watching, it was the sound of a group of people clapping, now if you lived anywhere other than Possum Springs then you'd have to see what triggered them to clap to know what show it was, but here in Possum Springs the only show to have a live audience that clapped was Garbo and Malloy. She walked into the living room and her father looked over to Mae "Hey kitten."

Mae gave a slight wave "Hey dad."

Her dad also gave a slight wave "You wanna watch TV with me?"

Mae shrugged "Sure."

She then walked over to the couch and hopped up onto it sitting down next to him. Mae rested her elbow on the couch's arm chair, she then rested her chin in the palm of her hand and sat there, her eyes were staring at the TV screen but she wasn't paying any attention to what was going on, sadly her ears were still vary much aware of the TV "So Garbo. How about those fireworks?"

Mae liked spending time with her dad but she wasn't a fan of the current show that was on "I dunno Malloy, they were nice and all. But I still think my homemade fireworks are better."

Mae sighed realizing that the horrible joke was coming much sooner then she would've liked "Is that so Garbo?"

Mae's eyes focused for a second and saw that Malloy nodded "Yeah, although I don't think you'll ever get to see 'em."

Mae prepared her body for the coming joke "And why's that Malloy?"

Malloy cracked a smile, " _Here it comes._ "

"Cuz those fireworks... Was my computer after I forgot my mother's annul birthday E-Mail!"

Mae immediately hopped off of the couch "Welp! I'm hungry, bye."

She then bolted out of the living room which caused her father to smile knowing exactly why she ran away. Mae skid to a stop in the kitchen as her mother pepper some salt into a pot "Hi sweetie."

Mae walked over to the counter behind her mother and she hopped up onto it and she sat down "Hi... What's for dinner?"

Her mother than grabbed a wooden spoon and started to stir the pot of unknown contents "Pasta and meatballs."

Mae cocked her head to the side inquisitively "And marinara sauce?"

Her mother nodded "Yes, and marinara sauce."

Mae smiled and returned her head back to it's original position "Awesome!... How long is it gonna take?"

Mae's mother stood there silently stirring what could only be assumed the pot of still cooking noodles, she then eventually answered "Maybe another hour or two."

Mae then hopped off of the counter "Alright, I'll be in my room till then."

"Alright dear."

Mae then ran up to her bedroom, as she ran up the stairs she could still hear the sound of Malloy say "And join us next time when me and Garbo take matters into our hands."

Followed by the sound of the audience clapping and cheering as that episode of the show finally ended, she ran into her bedroom and closed the bedroom's door before jumping onto her bed, she then leaned over the side of her bed and grabbed her laptop she pulled it out from under the bed, she then placed it in front of herself and opened it up not really sure what she wanted to do to do on it yet, she could play some more Demon Tower which she had yet to complete, she could surf the web or whatever teens were- " _NO! BAD MAE! YOU DON'T CARE WHAT TEENS SAY OR THINK ABOUT YOU!_ "

Anyways, or she could see if any of her friends were online so she could talk with them. She turned on her computer, over on the right side of her screen were the icons of her friend's instant messaging profiles, at the top of the pile of profiles was Bea's, followed by Gregg, Angus, then Casey someone who wasn't going to be using it anytime soon but Mae kept it around out of respect for him, and also as a way of feeling as if he was still here with her, sitting next to her on her bed after an intense band practice, which may or may not have involved Gregg almost, out of excitement, attempting to smash his guitar against the ground like how rock stars did. Then over on the right side of her screen was the profiles of Lori and Selmers, Mae sat there for a moment still trying to figure out what she wanted to do when suddenly the sound of an incoming message startled her, once she calmed down from the startle she saw that Angus had sent out the message, she clicked on his profile and saw that the message had also been sent to Bea, she then heard the sound of Bea sending several messages over and over again, it eventually got to the point she had to respond to Bea instead of reading Angus' message, she minimized Angus' profile and opened up Bea's she was then flooded with every message she had sent:

"Mae"

"Mae"

"Mae"

"Mae for the love of god please answer"

"Mae please"

Mae wasn't sure what was going on, she hesitated slightly taking a moment to clearly think of what she was going to respond with instead of just jumping straight into it and possibly making things worse "Whats up? Whats wrong?"

"Mae have you read Angus' message yet?"

"No why? Should I?"

"NO DON'T"

Mae's hands started to tremble slightly out of anxiety, and concern she had now clue what was going on, a part of her didn't want to know, a part of her did, and a part of her wanted to find out why Bea didn't want her to read the message "Why not?"

"Cuz just don't read it yet"

"Why"

"I just"

"I"

"..."

"I don't know"

"Bea I'm gonna read it"

Before Bea could send her response Mae closed Bea's profile, she then maximized Angus' profile and finally read the message, her heart stopped, her mouth became dry, a pit formed inside of her stomach, she couldn't breath, she couldn't think of anything other then what she had read "As of September 14th, 2018. Greggory Harper Lee has gone missing in the Deep Hallow county, and in the city of Bright Harbor. He was last seen exiting his apartment complex, the River Shack complex, on 11th street. Greggory Harper Lee is a yellow fox with green eyes, he was last seen wearing a black leather jacket, grey undershirt, blue jeans, and a pair of navy colored boots. If any one knows the whereabouts of this individual then please contact your local or closest police department and give them any information on this matter.-Bright Harbor Police Department, guys, please, I don't know what to do. And I'm scared, for him, for me, he hasn't left any trace of himself.".


	6. New day, Last night's troubles

"Mae?"

"Mae?"

"Mae!?"

Bea sat at her laptop on her bed worried out of her mind, after Mae declared that she was going to read Angus' message she hadn't responded to any of Bea's own messages. The only thing she could do was just sit there and wait for a response, she hung her left leg over the side of her bed, and she was bouncing it restlessly. Bea could hear the sound of floor boards creaking as someone walked to the kitchen, that person was more than likely her father who had probably gotten up to get something to drink, she had her bedroom door closed so she could see for sure but after living for her father for this long she'd learned what kind of noises he made or caused. Suddenly a ding came from her computer, the noise startled her and caused her to jump back slightly, it was Mae, she finally responded, Bea clicked onto Mae's profile and read the message her friend had sent.

"I read it"

Bea had no clue how Mae'd react to the news of Gregg going missing so she was worried even more than before now that she knew Mae had actually read it "And?"

"..."

"Mae?"

"I wanna help."

"How?"

"I wanna go to Bright Harbor and help Angus look for Gregg."

"How are you going to get a ride there? Your parents have work and you don't know how to drive."

"If this was a world where I got everything I wanted, you'd drive me there."

Bea sighed, she wanted to help out Angus as well but she had work also and she doubted she'd be able to get time off "Mae trust me I'd love to help but I got work."

"Cant you like convince your dad to let you go while someone else takes care of the store?"

Bea sat there for a moment, she was right, before the only reason why she didn't have any days off was because she was the only one working in the store full time, but now that she's hired Danny full time and Germ part time she could convince her dad to let her take Mae and go help Angus "That's actually not a bad idea."

"Really?"

"Yeah really."

"Bea thank you thank you so much for doing this, listen I gotta tell my parents about all this, when can we take off for Bright Harbor?"

"Tomorrow twelve in the afternoon."

"Got it."

Bea then exited out of Mae's profile and closed her laptop, she then picked it up and walked over to one of the various cardboard boxes that sat all over her room and placed the laptop inside of it. She then walked over to her bedroom door and reached for the door nob, she hesitated slightly not really sure if her father was even still up, but she then quickly heard the sound of the TV being turned on which confirmed that yes her father was still up. She walked out of her room and silently closed the door behind herself before walking into her living room where her father sat on the couch, a glass of water in his hand, watching some sort of sports game, he hadn't noticed her yet so when Bea suddenly sat down next to him on the couch it startled him slightly. Even though Bea had startled him he simply huffed slightly before he returned to watching the TV, Bea cleared her throat which had luckily caught her father's attention "Um... So, somethings come up. And I gotta ask, c- can I like take some time off from the store so I can drive Mae up to Bright Harbor?"

Mr. Santello gave Bea a suspicious glare "What kind of something has come up?"

Bea tried her best to avoid her father's eyes while also looking at his head "O- one of our friends has gone missing and we want to help look for him."

Mr. Santello nodded slowly "Alright... Then who's gonna look after the store while you're gone?"

Bea started to bounce her right leg out of anxiety, she hated talking to her father about this kind of stuff but it was for a good reason, she had to help her friends out "D- Danny can look after the store while I'm gone, and Ger- Jeremy could help him."

Mr. Santello took a sip from his glass of water "Alright... How long are you gonna be gone?"

Bea froze for a second, she hadn't thought of that, how long would she need to be gone? If she could she'd be gone until they found Gregg, but she couldn't do that, she had to have a legitimate start and stop for this trip "What about um... Three weeks?"

Mr. Santello sat there silently, he was half staring at Bea and half watching the TV, eventually he finally spoke up "I'll give you the rest of this week, and then the next two weeks."

Bea grinned, she was happy that she could go help her friends, and she was also happy to be out of this uncomfortable and awkward position "Th- Thank you."

Her father nodded and she got off the couch, she hadn't realized till now but she was starving, which was probably because she hadn't eaten any lunch that day. As she walked to the kitchen she couldn't help but think some very morbid thoughts, well more morbid then her usual morbid thoughts " _What if we can't find him? What if he was kidnapped? And if he was, will we be to late? How'll Angus react to that? How'll Mae react to that? How will I react to that?_ "

She shook her head clearing her mind of those depressing thoughts before opening up the fridge and pulling out some cheap ingredients she'd bought a few days ago so she could start dinner.

* * *

September 14th, 2018, 8:45 A.M. Possum Springs, the Borowski household, kitchen.

* * *

Mae sat groggily at the wooden table that sat in the middle of her kitchen, in front of her sat her breakfast, a half eaten slice of toast covered in jelly, and the remnants of eggs. This was her usual breakfast meal, when ever she actual had breakfast at her house, the only thing out of the usual was the cup of coffee that sat next to her plate she'd never sought out coffee in the morning and the one time she had she'd forgot about it a few minutes after she made it. The only reason why she had it now was because she hadn't been able to sleep last night, the fact that Gregg had gone missing was, on it's own, enough to keep her up all night but her mind kept on betraying her by constantly filling it's self with terrible thoughts of why, or how Gregg had gone missing. Mae's mother placed a plate down on the table and sat down, she held her own cup of coffee which she then also put down, Mae was almost half asleep again when her mother sat down so she gave Mae a little poke on her arm "Mae, sweety, you gotta wake up."

Mae sat up straight and rubbed both her eyes "Uuuuggggghhhhh! This effing SUCKS! Why is it that now of all times I get so tired when I stay up all night?"

Mae's mom shrugged "I dunno, maybe because you were kept up by anxiety and fear instead of your natural excitement and energy?"

After Mae and Bea figured out when they'd be heading out to Bright Harbor she'd rushed right downstairs to tell her parents about the news, when she did they both effectively said the same things "Will you be fine?" and "What'll you do?" and Mae answered both questions with "I'm fine." and "We'll help Angus look around Bright Harbor, but other than that I dunno." after that dinner was rather quite and sad, delicious but still quite and sad.

Mae nodded still very groggy "Yeah... Maybe that's it."

Mae's mom then pointed at her meal "You should probably finish that."

Mae then nodded again as she grabbed the slice of jellied toast and took a bite out of it, after a little while she finished her slice of toast then got back to work on her eggs. After she finished her eggs she finally got back to work on her cup of coffee, she had no clue how to make any kind of coffee, the first time she made coffee she did nothing to it so it was bitter and disgusting, but it did have one hell of a kick to it. Now, when she made her current cup of coffee she'd done a lot to it, she'd dumped spoon fulls of sugar, and caramel sauce, then she'd dumped a quarter cup of milk into it then mixed it all together, so her current cup of coffee was really, really, really sweet. She took a sip of her coffee made her wince at just how sweet it was "Agh!... God, I need to learn how to make coffee."

Mae's mother took a bite out of her breakfast and swallowed it "I could teach you."

Mae then placed the cup back down on the table "Actually that'd be really nice, I'd love that... What time is it?"

Her mother looked over to the wall in front of her, on the wall was a clock which was what Mrs. Borowski was looking at "It's 8:45, why did you want to know?"

Mae's eyes widened in shock "Shit! I gotta go!"

Mae then quickly picked up her cup of coffee and chugged it down, no longer caring about the extreme sweetness of the drink, as she chugged it some of the drink spilled over the sides and rolled down her face, she then slammed the cup down on the table coffee still dripping down the sides of her mouth "AAAGGGHHH! I'm gonna regret that! Bye mom love you!"

She then hopped off of her chair and ran out of the kitchen, as she ran out she grabbed a box of tissues off of the counter and started to wipe off her face. As Mae ran for the front her vary confused mother called out "What's going on?"

Mae spun around before running out of the house and yelled back "I gotta meet up with Lori! I told her last night I need to talk to her!. I gotta be up on the roofs in five minutes!"

She then bolted out of the house still holding the box of tissues she'd swiped off of the counter and left a very confused mother behind "Wait, on the roofs?"

Mae ran over to her house's mailbox and jumped up onto it, she quickly balanced herself before jumping over to a telephone poll and, with one hand, climbed up it. Once she reached the top she hopped up onto the telephone's wires and walked across them heading for the roof of the Chestnut Street buildings, as she did people walked by underneath her, none of them were surprised to see Mae up there. Ever since Casey taught her how to climb over anything when she was ten it became a regular sight to see her up on the roofs, or telephone wires, and of course her aunt, the mall cop, hated Mae being up there not because she was worried for Mae's safety, well maybe a little, but the real reason why she hated Mae being up there was because it was harder for her aunt to enforce the law upon Mae when she was up there. Eventually Mae reached the roof her and Lori first met at, she then hopped off of the wires and landed on the roof, she then walked over to the left side of the roof and sat down, her legs dangling over the side. She just then realized that she was still holding the box of tissues she'd swiped from her house, she placed it down next to her and over to her right Lori climbed up on to the roof, she was shocked when she saw Mae sitting there "How long have you been up here?"

She then walked over to Mae and sat down next to her, before Mae answered she could feel the coffee she'd chugged down taking effect "I.. I just got up here, I wanted to get here early. I'm guessing you did too."

Lori nodded slowly "Yeah... What's with the tissues?"

Lori pointed to the box of tissues and Mae looked over to it before answering "Oh, I uh. Rushed out of my house to get here and on my way out I grabbed them to clean up my face, and I rushed out so fast I didn't realize that I still had them."

Lori then nodded again "Oh... So why did you wanna talk to me about?"

Mae took in a deep breath "So... One of my friends, Gregg, has... Gone missing. And latter today me and Bea are gonna drive over to his house and help his boyfriend, Angus, find him."

Lori wasn't really sure how to react to that "I- uh- well, what uh.. What are, uh, what kind of plan do you have?"

Mae raised an eyebrow in confusion "What do you mean?"

Lori shrugged "Like, where are you gonna look first? Then where will you go after that, and after that, and well so on and so on?"

Mae sat there silently, she hadn't thought of that "Uh.. Angus'll show us around all the places he and Gregg visit the most, and we'll go from there."

Lori nodded again "Alright... Is there anything me and Selmers can do?"

Mae shrugged "You could like tell Selmers about all of this, while I go off and pack."

Lori shifted how she was sitting, now her knees were resting against her chest "How long are you gonna be gone?"

Mae scratched the bottom of her chin "I... Don't know, but I'm sure Bea's figured that out, she kinda has to, she's gotta get some days off of work in order to help look for Gregg."

Lori nodded again, she was doing that a lot probably because she was feeling kinda awkward and didn't know how to react to all of this "Alright, okay, so I'll go find Selmers and tell her about all of this.. And you go and pack."

Mae nodded "Alright, see you latter."

Lori then stood up and so did Mae "See you."

Mae then ran over to the edge of the roof and jumped off of it landing on one of the telephone wires, she then made her way back towards her house as Lori climbed down the building the same way she climbed up.

* * *

8:48 A.M. Santello Apartment

* * *

Bea grabbed a pair of dark blue shorts, the shorts had holes in them, some were created by natural wear and tear, some were intentional. She then folded them and set them inside of her black suitcase that she had sitting on her bed, the suitcase was filled with two and a half weeks worth of clothes, which weren't just a bunch of black dresses and a few different kinds of pants, she had other clothes but most of her clothes were just black dresses. Bea grabbed a few more pairs of clothing and set them inside of the suitcase, she then closed up her suitcase and set it down on the floor before she sat down on her bed where the suitcase was once resting and sighed slightly, she never liked packing for anything ever since her and her father moved out of their old house, they moved away because of financial problems but Bea always believed that there was a secondary motive to the move, she believed that her father had them move away not just because of the price of the house's bills but also because everywhere he looked he would always see the mark of his wife, and Bea's mother, who had died while Bea was still in high school due to cancer. Bea reached into her pocket and pulled out her packet of cigarettes, she opened it up and pulled out a cigarette, Bea then leaned over the side of her bed and picked up her lighter, after she grabbed the lighter she ignited it and lit her cigarette. After taking a drag off of her cigarette and blowing it out of her mouth she fell back onto her bed grunting slightly when her back hit the bed, she nothing but time to kill until the middle of the afternoon so she had nothing better to do, she could head down to the Pickaxe and help out there, but she didn't feel like it, honestly after she found out about Gregg's disappearance she didn't feel like doing anything other than try and help but she wanted desperately to just for a moment think about something nice, something happy.

Bea took another drag off of her cigarette as she tried to think of something nice, at first she thought about how much fun she secretly had with Mae when they visited the Fort Lucenne Mall, about how she laughed at everyone Mae soaked with the mall's fish shaped fountain, but that happy thought was quickly wiped away by the memory of what happened just a few days after that, how her and her friends found out about that Murder Cult, how they chased them through the forest and did something that caused Mae to fall into a coma, how after she fell into that coma she sleepwalked to Gregg's apartment and once she got there she was really groggy, disoriented, and it almost seemed as if she had already died, it scared Bea, it scared all of Mae's friends. So just to be on the safe side her and Gregg took turns laying next to Mae on Gregg and Angus' couch, although when Mae started to fall asleep Bea told Gregg that she'd sleep next to Mae and that he should go sleep in his own bed, although that memory made Bea fell good inside but sadly it was quickly wiped away and it was replaced by the memory of Bea, Gregg, and Angus heading into the mines after Mae, then that they killed several different men with one cave in caused by them trying to save Mae from some dick called Eide who tried to grab Mae by her leg.

Bea sighed letting out a puff of smoke as she did, her mind was constantly betraying her with her own thoughts, and at this moment it sucked the most. She had spent one too many days last year being paranoid for her own safety and now she just wanted a few minutes of happy thoughts, but no, she had to think about those same paranoia inducing events of the last year. Although it could be worse, during that same year and during some of the times Bea and Mae hung out together, specifically the time her and Mae went to Mrs. Miranda's House for a job, her mind betrayed her by thinking Mae was actually kinda cute, in a different way then normal, of course she immediately shot that thought down so it wasn't that big of a deal. Bea sat up and pulled her laptop up onto her bed, she then pulled it open and turned it on, she quickly checked the time "9:00" Bea sighed and thought to herself _"Just a few more hours, like, three more... Goddammit this is gonna take forever._ "

She then got to absentmindedly messing around on her computer to pass the time.

* * *

9:00 A.M. Mae's room.

* * *

Mae tossed a wadded up shirt into her open suitcase which was sitting on her bed, she then quickly dug around her dresser looking for something she'd be willing to ware while they were there, she quickly grabbed a pair of sweat pants and wadded them up before tossing them into her suitcase as well. Mae was hyped up by the sickening sweet coffee she had earlier in the morning so the reason for her actions being so energetic was because of the coffee, or maybe she thought that coffee made people act like this so her mind was making her act like this in an attempt to... fell normal? Mae wasn't sure why her mind would want to trick it's self but she didn't care, she wanted to run an effing mile! Of course she couldn't she had to pack, she had to help Angus, she had to help Gregg. Mae tossed some more wadded up pairs of clothing before slamming the top of her suitcase down and zipping it shut, she then practically tossed it onto the floor as she did she glanced over to herself in her standing mirror, Mae looked like an energetic maniac who had a vendetta against suitcases, which she didn't, Mae then sat down on top of her suitcase still staring at herself in the mirror "I look... Well not horrible, just, unsettling... I'm still really round though."

She then picked up the front of her shirt and lifted it up so she could stare at her stomach, she felt like she was a bit too round for her liking but she hadn't done anything about it, which was sad seeing as how she decided she needed to lose weight back when she first started college "God... I need to take better care of myself, I don't wanna become ACTUALLY too round... Not that there's anything wrong with being that rou- Why am I defending myself? Why am I talking to myself?..."

Mae then sighed "Cuz you're crazy Mae, that's why you talk to yourself... I need to find something other than talking to myself to pass time."

Mae then grew a big smile, she got off of her suitcase and got down on to all fours next to her bed, she then stuck her arm under her bed and pulled out a brown book covered in dust. Mae brushed off the dust on the cover of the book and silently read it's title to herself "Adina Astra and the Forgotten Planet"

She read that story almost as many times as she read "Adina Astra and the Lost Constellation"

But she just loved Adina, and any stories Lucas Buford wrote, but she loved Adina the most out of all of his stories. Mae cracked the book open, the pages had turned yellow from ageing, and they smelled like dust, dirt, and old pages. She loved that smell it reminded her of when she was younger, when she sat on her grandfather's lap either in the living room, or in her bedroom, listening to him tell her stories till she fell asleep. Mae stood up and sat down on her bed, she then silently read the beginning of the first page in the first chapter "Adina Astra stood on the deck of a ship staring up at the night sky, it has been four months since her lover had perished and made Adina promise to find all of they night sky's mysteries. She did not want to break that promise, she was going to uphold it, that was why she was on this ship she was searching for the elusive Forgotten Planet that can, supposedly, only be viewed from an island chain known as "Insulam de Sacramentum" which was Latin for Isle of Mystery."

Mae grinned slightly after she finished reading that little bit of the story, when she was younger she had tried to read the name of the island chain but had messed up horribly, luckily now she had a basic understanding of Latin, Mae then got back to reading the story while she waited for the time to fly by.


	7. Greetings from Bright Harbor!

Mae sat hunched over on her bed, she was still reading the Adina story and was half way asleep, it wasn't because she thought the story was boring it was just that for most her life she had only ever heard this story just a few minutes before she went to sleep so her brain has associated this story with sleep. Mae flipped the page of the book and attempted to read the first word but each time she did her eyes closed more and more, suddenly the sound of a car's horn startled her back into a fully conscious state of mind, Mae closed the book and put it down on her bed, she then stood on top of her bed and stared out of the window that was behind her, outside she could see Bea's car parked in the street just next to the sidewalk, standing next to the drive side door with her hand through the window resting on the car's horn was Bea. Mae quickly hopped off of her bed and grabbed her suitcase, she burst out of her room and ran down the stair, as she ran out the front door she shoot her dad, who was getting ready for work, a quick goodbye.

As she ran towards Bea's car the crocodile took her hand off of the horn and walked over to Mae "You got everything you need?"

Mae nodded "Yeah, I don't know how long we're gonna stay there so I just plan on wearing each of my clothes more than once, and occasionally to bed as well... How long are we staying?"

Bea picked up Mae's suitcase and walked over to the back of her car with Mae following her closely behind "We're staying there for the rest of this week and then the next two."

Mae rubbed her hands together "Good, great even!"

Bea nodded although it seemed insincere due to her constant deadpan attitude "So seems like we're ready to go."

Mae nodded again as Bea opened up the trunk and placed Mae's suitcase on top of her own, as Bea closed the car's trunk the two of them heard a familiar voice call to them "Mae! Bea! Wait!"

Mae turned around as Bea closed the trunk, Mae saw Lori, with a brown duffel bag slung over her shoulders, running towards her. Following Lori from behind was Selmers who held a pink back pack by one of it's straps, Mae looked over to Bea, who had also turned around and saw the two other girls running towards them, in confusion Bea also gave Mae a confused look before yelling a question to them "What are you doing?"

Lori waited until she was closer to Mae and Bea to answer the question "Me and Selmers are gonna help!"

Just as Lori finished Selmers also arrived and nodded solidifying Lori's claim, Mae was still in a confused state but a natural twitch of her left ear broke her out of it "But you two have lives here, you don't even know Gregg or Angus!"

Bea nodded agreeing with Mae "And Selmers aren't your parents like, policing your life?"

Selmers shrugged "All I said was that they put a curfew on my life cuz of what I've done, I never said they checked if I'm home at that time, hell they don't care if I'm not there all day. I can even say that I've been out doing drugs and crime and they don't care, the only thing I have to worry out is me ending up on the news, that's when they remember me."

Bea scratched the back of her head "That sucks."

Selmers waved her hand dismissing Bea's words "Nah, it's fine... I've never gotten along with my folks, that's why I got with Dennis, that's why I had his kid, just to get back at em' then the drugs were at first to deal with a broken leg, then to also be used as a tool of my... Vengeance?"

She shrugged "I don't got a better word for it."

Mae looked over to Lori "And what about your dad?"

It took a moment for Lori to hear Mae "..Oh! Uh... He- He'll be fine with it."

Bea also looked over to Lori "You don't seem to confident in that."

Lori shook her head "No I.. I'm just nervous about all this, farthest I've been away from Possum Springs was that hill thing last night."

Mae took a quick look to Bea before asking a question that might strike a nerve with the crocodile "Uh... Lori, is something going on with your dad?"

Lori quickly looked over to Mae in surprise "What!? No! No everything's fine!.. I just, he don't pay much attention to me.. Not like Selmers' parents, it's just that he's really really busy with his work."

While Lori talked Mae took quick little looks over to Bea's face to see her reaction. Luckily, or maybe not, Bea didn't seem to react at all. Bea sighed and rubbed her forehead "Alright... Listen, I'm not taking anyone with us unless their parents are fine with it. So are you two sure your parents'll be fine with this?"

Bea and Selmers nodded, Bea turned back around and opened up the car's trunk again, as she did she silently muttered to herself "Alright"

And took both Selmers's and Lori's luggage, she then semi tossed them into the trunk before closing the trunk. Bea walked over to the driver side door and opened it up signaling to everyone it's time to get in and head off, Mae hopped into passenger seat next to the driver seat, while Lori and Selmers sat in the back, Bea slid her keys into the car's ignition and turned on the engine, Mae watched Bea as she shifted the car's gears into drive mode, if you couldn't tell Mae doesn't know a thing about cars or how they work, and Bea started to drive down the road heading for the exit of the town. As they drove out of town Mae caught a quick look at the sign sitting on the edge of the town's boarder that has read "You're not lost! You're here!" since Mae's grandfather was born, as they drove away from town Mae looked out of the car's side window out of boredom, although Mae hasn't been outside of Possum Springs a lot she has seen the tall trees that lined the sides of the road numerous times so it wasn't all that exciting seeming them again only this time faster then before. But she was also having a bit of a mental crisis, she felt like she should be nervous, scared even, about what's to come, about how Gregg is missing, she felt like she should feel bad for Angus, but she wasn't. Everything felt... fine, she didn't feel bad, or nervous, or scared, she was just bored, kinda sleepy too and THAT was scarring her, not her friend going missing, not the fact that she's heading to some place she's never been to before or ever seen, she was scared because she wasn't scared for the right reasons.

Mae placed her elbow on the car door and rested the side of her head on her hand, she scratched the other side of her head with her other hand while, Lori sketched aimlessly on her sketch pad, Selmers stretched herself out and relaxed into her seat, and Bea sat there as deadpan as ever driving. Mae's eyes grew heavier as they drove along the road, the hypnotic sight of trees whizzing by and the sky slowly turning purple as the sun set in the distance was put Mae under their spell of sleep, Mae yawned rather loudly which caught the attention of Bea "It'll be fine for you to take a nap. We won't get there for a few more hours or so." Mae responded by yawning again this time much quieter as her eyes slowly slid shut, eventually after a minute or so of trying to fight back she eventually gave in and feel asleep her head still resting against her hand which was resting against the car door. Bea took a quick glance over to Mae and grinned slightly, even though Mae would never admit it, or even notice it, she looked tired and stressed all the time kinda like Bea, only the reason for her looking so miserable was probably because she was stressed over trying to keep her mental sanity in check, trying not to have a random out burst like that one time at the softball game, but right now, and every other time she slept, Mae looked so peaceful, so happy, so cute- " _NO!... Uh, no. Cute in the platonic way, like oh that dog is cute... Yeah._ "

Bea sighed and readjusted her grip on the steering wheel "Yeah."

* * *

 _Mae stood in front of Gregg and Angus' old apartment, the window that used to belong to them was unlit with no sign of life or even any kind of contact in or on it. She didn't know why but she felt like something bad was going to happen at any moment and that she wasn't going to be able to stop it or do anything about it, she took a look around, the streets, and sidewalks were all empty, the sky was an almost pale blue color with fog like grey clouds hanging in the air in patches, the sun must've been behind the clouds because it seemed as though there was a yellow light sitting right behind them trying to poke it's way through. Mae suddenly felt the ground rumble, she quickly returned her stare to the apartment and say brick after brick, step after step, plank after plank, window after window be ripped out of the building and lifted up into the sky, past the clouds and disappear leaving nothing behind except a patch of dry dirt where the base of the building once was._

 _The ground was still rumbling, Mae looked around and saw the buildings, sidewalks, and streets be ripped up out of the ground, crumbled down into the building blocks that made them and lifted up into the sky, past the clouds just like the apartment, suddenly the part of sidewalk Mae was standing on started to lift up into the air, but it phased right through her as it also flew off into the sky. When she blinked the town was gone, leaving dry dirt patches everywhere, but nature was already retaking the land that was once home to several families at one point or another, Mae was alone, she was surrounded by endless forest that was slowly creeping up on her and she felt like it was her fault, she felt like she caused all of this, like she could've done something about all of this, like she could've prevented the death of her home if she had just listened to the cult and joined them none of this would've happened, the town'd be fine, Gregg and Angus would still be with her, she wouldn't be alone, if only she had listened to the cult, and to that voice. That voice, down in the mines, the one surrounded by shadows, the one with no body, no face, it didn't even really talk to her, it just... Sang._

 _"_ **Margaret Borowski. It's been a long time.** _"_

 _Mae spun around trying to find the source of that loud and booming voice, it was unnaturally deep, and it echoed as if it was inside of a hole "Who's there!?"_

 _"_ **Do not worry. I'm not here to hurt you, I just want to talk.** _"_

 _It echoed all around her as if who ever was talking was walking circles around her "Where are you?!"_

 _"_ **Margaret Borowski, I'm right behind you.** _"_

 _Mae hesitantly turned around slowly, once she turned around fully she found herself standing inside of... The cave where that horrid hole was "_ **Didn't you hear me? I'm right behind you!** _"_

 _She slowly turned around again and standing between her and the hole was, a pure black goat, with bright yellow eyes, his horns were long and jagged, they looked like they were ready to impale whatever got close enough, and he had a short goatee growing out of his chin "Wh- Who are y- you?"_

 _Mae was shaking in fear, even though he was just as tall as her he still some how loomed over her "_ **I've gone by many names.** _"_

 _"L- Like what?"_

 _"_ **Oh well I've been called Cronos, Saturn, Hades, Dis Pater, Satan, and the Devil to name a few. But none of them are true, because I don't have a NAME, although I do like what my newest followers named me.** _"_

 _"Wh- What did th- they-"_

 **The Black Goat!.. It's so.. Well it's rather unoriginal, but still it's something NEW!** _"_

 _"Ar- Are y- you th- the th- thing i- in the h- hole?" Mae shakily pointed at the hole behind the Black Goat and her followed her finger taking a look behind himself before answering_

 _"_ **Yes, indeed I am the _thing_ in the hole. Like I said before I have multiple names you can chose one of them.** _"_

 _Mae felt like she was going to puke, the thing that had caused all of last years troubles, the thing that made people kill other much more innocent people was standing right in front of her, and it wanted to talk, never mind the fact that before it was an un-solid mass of shadows and fog that simply sang at her because here it was, in full form standing right in front of her "Why d- do you w- want t- to t- t- talk to me?"_

 _Mae's mind desperately tried to find the humor in the situation to keep it's self from going crazy out of fear, she tried to make fun of how she was stuttering but each time she did she kept telling herself she should be stuttering, this is fucking terrifying!_

 _"_ **Well you see. You're heading to Bright Harbor, and before you ask the reason I know that is because I'm an omnipotent being I know everything. Anyways, and I also know how you react to new and unfamiliar things, your mind breaks, everything becomes SHAPES and, in an attempt to feel something you lash out, you've only done it once before in your life, well outside of your dreams that is, but still you're scared of it happening again. And I can help you! I can prevent your mind from snapping like that, but there is a catch which is that you must... Well to put it simply and quickly, you must work for me. Now then it's nothing to serious, not yet, and I might not even need you to do anything for quite a while, so what do you say? An eye for an eye? Work for me and you'll never see those SHAPES again?** _"_

 _Mae hesitated as the Black Goat reached out his hand awaiting her hand to shake it, she was actually contemplating this deal! She was actually thinking of working for the guy that said one of his names is the DEVIL! What's wrong with her?! This is like something out of her worst night... mare. Th- that's right! She fell asleep in Bea's car on the way to Bright Harbor stressed out over her mental chaos, and this was her mind personifying it! It was like trying to tell her something, although she didn't know what, she never really knew what her mind was trying to tell her half the time so this wasn't anything new. She gave the Black Goat a fake laugh "HAH! Like I'd work for you! You're not even real!"_

 _The Black Goat shrugged and pulled his hand back_ _"_ **Welp, at least I can say I tried to play nice. See you soon Miss Borowski.** _"_

 _The Black Goat then dissolved into shadows and fog like how he looked in the mines last year, he then quickly flew into the hole before a massive bright white light erupted from out of the hole blinding Mae as it did._

* * *

Mae's eyes jolted open, she blinked a few times regaining her bearings, she was still inside of Bea's car, Lori and Selmers were still sitting in the back seat, and Bea was still driving. Although there weren't any trees lining the sides of the road, instead there where tall building, some looked like office buildings, others looked like apartments, eventually they passed through and intersection which gave Mae a perfect view of a massive lake sitting just a few miles away, they where here! They where in Bright Harbor! Mae quickly sat upright which startled Bea slightly but not enough to cause the car to swerve, Mae then quickly looked over to Bea "How much farther?"

Bea shrugged "Maybe, a mile or two, but don't be so loud. Lori fell asleep a few minutes ago and has Selmers' hand locked in a death grip so we don't want to scare her awake and possibly do something to Selma's hand."

Mae looked at Selmers and saw Lori cocked to the side gripping Selmers' hand tightly "Are you alright?"

Selmers nodded "Yeah, I'm fine."

Her expression betrayed her words, she looked like she was in a lot of discomfort while Lori looked as though she was perfectly content right where she was. True to Bea's words after another hour or two they eventually came to a stop in front of Gregg and Angus' new apartment, the building looked almost identical to the one they used to live in except it looked to be in much better care the the previous one. Bea parked the car and took her keys out of the ignition before slipping them into her pocket and unbuckling, she then opened up her door and stepped out of the car followed by Mae who practically leaped out of the car, then Selmers who tried to pry Lori off of her hand but that didn't work so, with a little help from Bea, she unbuckled both herself and Lori, and scooped the mouse up like a baby or a newly wed bride, but that analogy is weird so maybe the baby one instead of the newly wed. Lori actually looked kinda adorable being held like that by Selmers, she also looked really comfortable in Selmers' arms which made sense seeing as how not only was Selma's whole body was supper soft, but so was her clothes, she always said the reason why she kept her fur and clothes so soft was because "If I ever randomly fall asleep at least I'll be comfy."

Which made sense to Mae. Everyone grabbed their luggage, Bea also took Selmers' backpack while Mae took Lori's duffel bag along side their own luggage, they all walked into the apartment's lobby which was filled with a few chairs, a couch or two, and a few book shelves along side some tables, it was rather simple but it was just a lobby after all. The young teenager working the front desk eyed everyone as they entered the building "Can I help you?"

His voice sounded accusing and entitled, Bea walked over to the front desk while Selmers sat down on one of the couches. Bea placed her hand on top of the white marble counter of the front desk "We're here to visit Angus Delaney. What room is he in?"

The teen's accusing expression didn't waver as he reached under the counter and pulled out a black book, he flipped through the book glancing at each page "Room twenty. Stairs have been closed down for repairs please take the elevators."

Bea raised an eyebrow in confusion "What kind of damage would require the entire staircase to be closed down?"

The teen rolled his eyes "It's not the entire staircase it's just the first flight of stairs, some dick broke the railings and we're legally required to close it down till we fix them."

Bea nodded "Huh."

She then walked over to everyone else "Come on."

She then walked over to the elevator followed by everyone else. Once the elevator came down and the door opened they all crammed themselves into the elevator, as it rose up heading for Angus's floor Lori started to stir in Selmers's arms, she mumbled something to herself and the only words Mae could clearly make out was "Wow" and "Not like that, more dye" Mae guessed something in her dream impressed her, and that someone messed up her fake blood recipe, hopefully Mae hadn't. Once the elevator came up to their requested floor the mob of friends all came out of the metal box and headed down the hallway, as they reached Angus' door it opened up and out stepped a canine police officer, the officer looked over to the group of friends and closed the door behind him "Can I help you?"

Bea stepped forwards nervously "We're friends of Angus."

The officer eyed Bea slightly and reopened the door "Follow me."

The officer then led everyone into Angus' apartment. Sitting on a brown leather couch was Angus, he was in blue stripped pajamas and looked exhausted, of course he still had his glasses on. Once his friends walked in Angus stood up quickly "Mae? Bea? Wh- what are you two doing here?"

Before either of them could answer the officer spoke up "So you know these four?"

Angus inspected everyone and nodded "Yes I know them."

The officer then placed his hands on his hips on top of his utility belt lined with all sorts of police gadgets "Alright, then I guess I'll be going. Goodnight mister Delaney." the officer then gave a slight tip of his cop cap and walked out of the apartment. Once everyone heard the door shut Angus walked over to his friends "Seriously what are you two doing here? And who are the other two?"

Mae raised her arms up into the air "We're here to help you look for Gregg!.. And the other two are some new friends that also want to help!"

Angus looked at Selmers and Lori who was still in Selma's arms "...Okay, so, uh.. Listen I gotta get some sleep, I didn't get any sleep yesterday and right now I'm exhausted."

Bea placed her hand on Angus' shoulder "Alright Angus get some sleep, and we'll get set up out here."

Angus readjusted his glasses "Actually we have a second bedroom that's big enough for like, two other people. A- and the couch can pull out into a bed."

Mae looked over to leather couch "I thought only soft, fur like couches could be pulled out into a bed."

Angus shrugged and Bea took her hand off of him "I did to but then Gregg found this couch in the back of a furniture store."

Bea then readjusted Selmers's backpack letting out a strained sigh "Could we hurry this up?"

Angus nodded "Alright so, there's a bunch of pillows and blankets in the guest bedroom. I'm going to bed."

Angus then walked towards his bedroom leaving Mae, Bea and their new friends alone in the living room. Bea pulled out the couch bed and stepped back from it "Alright, who's gonna sleep out here?"

Selmers sat down on the couch bed "Me and Lori'll take it, you two have known each other much longer then either of us have so I guess you two have had a sleepover once in your lives?"

Mae nodded "Hell yeah we had sleepovers! They were the best sleepovers!"

Bea rolled her eyes "Yes we've had sleepovers and I guess you're right, we know each other more then you and Lori."

Bea then walked over to her suitcase and grabbed it's handle "Come on Mae."

She then started to walk over to the guest bedroom while Mae grabbed her suitcase and followed Bea. The guest bedroom was rather barren, there was only a two person bed with white sheets and a single blue blanket, and a little dresser sitting next to the door, Bea walked into the room and placed her suitcase against the wall closest to the bed, she then laid it down on it's back and started to unzip it's biggest compartment, as she did she glanced over to Mae "Are you gonna get ready for bed or?"

Mae then quickly laid her suitcase down on the ground and also unzipped it "Right!"

She then started to riffle through her clothes searching for a pair of pajamas she wanted to wear. Bea stood up and she was holding a pair of dark pale blue pajamas, one top and one bottom, she then turned around and looked at Mae "Are you going to be fine with me changing in here?"

Mae shrugged "Depends, are you gonna get naked?"

Bea shook her head "No I'm to tired to completely change, just gonna slip these on real quick."

Mae thought about it a moment "Yeah I'll be fine with it."

Bea then turned back around and started to undress, Mae kept her head down as she riffled through her clothes and Bea changed, she didn't know why but she felt kinda nervous with Bea changing right in front of her so instead of possibly make things worse she kept her head down and tried to find her pair of pajamas for the night. Eventually she found the pair she wanted to wear, they were yellow pajama shorts and a pink tank top, Mae quickly stood up and spun around trying her best not to stare at Bea or make herself any more nervous, sadly it didn't work according to plan, she'd gotten a glimpse of Bea's almost naked back as she spun around and now Mae was blushing slightly from the sight, as she also slipped out of her clothes and into her pajamas she kept thinking to herself " _What's happening?! Why do I feel so nervous!? She's my friend!? This shouldn't be so awkward!_ "

As she finished her thought she slid her tank top over herself and slowly turned her head trying to see if Bea was finished, luckily Bea held her wadded up dress and leggings and was dressed in her pajamas. Mae and Bea both climbed up onto the bed, Bea laid down on the left side while Mae took the right. Mae slipped under the covers and as soon as she did a wave of exhaustion hit her hard it almost knocked her out immediately, luckily the voice of Bea gave Mae some more energy "This isn't going to get awkward is it?"

Mae looked over to Bea "What do you mean?"

Bea shrugged "I dunno, we're all grown up now, we know about stuff we didn't know about when we were young. So like this COULD become really awkward."

Mae thought about it for a moment "It didn't get awkward back at Angus and Gregg's old place."

Bea sighed "That was different, you were practically almost dead."

Mae rolled her eyes "If you're worried about waking up with me like spooning you, or my hand laying on a part of your body you don't want it to be on. Don't worry, I sleep like a rock, I don't toss, I don't turn."

Bea sat there silently for awhile "...Alright."

She then rolled over facing away from Mae and probably closed her eyes, but Mae laid there on her back staring up at the ceiling, her mind running a mental recap of the day's previous events, specifically that weird dream she had in Bea's car, and how she felt a few moments ago. As she ran her mental recap her eyelids start to slid shut again, and as her body screamed at her to fall asleep she listened, she closed her eyes and drifted off in to her dream land not sure what kind of pleasant or horrific world she'd end up in this time, but Mae hoped for a pleasant dream land, one where she wouldn't remember last year at all.


	8. Breakfast Officer

September 15th, 2018, 6:12 A.M. Bright Harbor, the River Shack complex, room twenty.

* * *

Bea opened her eyes slightly as her phone emitted a constant buzzing sound, she probed her hand around the area her phone was buzzing in which was currently out of her sleepy sight. She eventually grabbed hold of the plastic, cold, and hard rectangular phone, she held it in front of her face and turned it on, the sudden bright light from the phone's screen practically blinded Bea but she recovered quickly. Once she unlocked her phone she saw why it was buzzing, she hadn't turned off her alarm that would normally remind her to wake up an hour or so before the store was supposed to open, now it only woke her up really effing early in the morning which pissed her off.

Bea sat up in bed still very groggy, she looked over to her left and saw Mae still sound asleep next to her, Bea was about to question why Mae wasn't woken up by the alarm's buzz but she remembered that during one of their sleepovers when they were younger Bea had wanted to keep Mae up all night so they could go hunt for Bigfoot in Mae's backyard, and after several hours of trying almost everything to wake Mae up young Bea eventually gave up and went to sleep along side her friend. That memory made Bea grin slightly, she had tried literally almost everything she could to wake Mae up, she even caused physical pain to Mae which only caused her to swat Bea's hands away each time she did, Bea gave Mae a quick and friendly kiss on the top of her forehead before sleepily saying to the cat "Sleep tight, Maeday."

Bea then climbed out of bed and placed the phone back down on the wooden nightstand that sat next to her side of the bed. Bea walked over to her suitcase and pulled it open, she grabbed a black, baggy, short sleeve shirt that had a big white Ankh on it's chest area much like the rest of her tops, even her dresses. She then grabbed a pair of dark blue jean capri pants, as well as a pair of fresh underwear for her to change into, she then walked out of the guest bedroom and back into the living room, on the pullout bed was Lori and Selmers who were both still asleep, Lori was curled up into a fetal position like shape, and she was snuggled up closely to Selmers who was just laying there spread out on the pullout however she wanted, Bea silently mumbled to herself "You two are lucky I don't wake you up with a buzzing phone."

She then walked past the pullout looking around the apartment trying to find the bathroom so she could change, as she searched around she saw that the kitchen light was on which caused the white tiles of the kitchen to almost glow when compared to the darker colors of the rest of the unlit apartment. Bea poked her head into the kitchen and she saw Angus sitting at a fold out table, he was holding a black Pickelhaube helmet that belonged to Gregg, which looked like a bike helmet that had a metal spike on the top of it, on it's front side there was a bullet hole in the place of what looked to have been silver colored engravings, on the back of the helmet directly across from the front was another bullet hole, and on it's right side was a large circle sticker that had a big red "A" on it either signifying anarchy or something else that Gregg liked. Angus himself was still in his blue stripped pajamas although now he wasn't wearing his glasses which was something Bea hadn't seen him do often. His eyes were colored green and looked bloodshot from crying, Bea slowly entered the kitchen, normally she wouldn't want anyone to see her in her pajamas but Angus was a very close friend... and he was gay, Bea stood inside the kitchen still holding her fresh change of clothes she wasn't sure what to say or do to get his attention so she decided to clear her throat which did catch Angus's attention, Angus looked over to Bea slightly surprised and possibly even startled "Oh.. Didn't see you standing there."

Bea walked over to the table and sat down across from Angus "It's fine... Can you even see without?"

Angus placed the helmet down in his lap before answering "Kinda, everything's just kinda fuzzy, like I can make things out but my glasses let me see things clearly."

Bea nodded as she placed her clothes down on her lap "Couldn't sleep?"

He nodded "Yeah... Well, kinda I did get some sleep but it wasn't a lot. I just couldn't sit still without thinking about Gregg, it kept me up, I'm just so... Scared."

She reached across the table and placed her hand on Angus's "Angus you're not alone, I'm sure Mae is just as scared as you are.. Hell if you gave her the chance I'm sure she'd freak out more than you did."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion "How so?"

Bea grinned slightly as she thought about how Mae'd react if she were in Angus's position "Well... Gregg'd want you to be calm, to think rationally that's why he loves you, you think things through, you keep him out of trouble. But Mae, she'd flip right the fuck out. She'd grab a bat and run all over town threatening anyone that so much as looked at her wrong, and Gregg'd want that. He likes Mae because she's a maniac, he likes her because she used to get him into all sorts of trouble when they were younger."

Angus also grinned slightly as he too imagined Mae's reaction. He suddenly realized that Bea had asked him why he was still up but he hadn't asked her "So, why are you up?"

Bea took her hand off of Angus's and placed it on top of her fresh clothes "I forgot to turn off my work alarm on my phone so it woke me up, and once I wake up it's hard for me to go back to sleep so I decided to just start my day earlier then I would've liked to."

Angus nodded as he sat back in his chair, his hands placed on Gregg's helmet, the two of them sat there in silence for a while when Angus grinned after remembering something from his past "Heh... So on me and Gregg's first bike date Gregg wore this helmet so he could, I guess impress me. But anyways, we biked all the way to Fort Lucenne and we stopped in the city's biggest park, and well, we were just sitting on a bench minding our own business, Gregg still wearing his helmet. When some lady stomped over to us and, who I could only assume was her boyfriend, followed her, and when she got over to us she pointed her finger right at Gregg and practically screamed at him "How dare you wear something that glorifies Nazi oppression" or something like that, well Gregg hopped up onto the bench, took of his helmet, held up high above his head, and screamed out "IT'S NOT A FASCIST HELMET!" before throwing it onto the ground in front of the lady, Gregg then pointed his finger at her and said to her "Now get lost before I oppress my fist into your face." and when he said it the lady looked like she was gonna snap and her poor boyfriend was trying his best to calm her down, but before she could say or do anything else Gregg hopped off of the bench, picked up the helmet, grabbed my arm and led me away saying "Come on cap'n this lady doesn't know the first thing about what she's supposed to be mad at." and as we got back onto the tandem-bike and peddled away I think Gregg either shot her the middle finger or possibly a sieg heil salute because she started to yell at us even as we left the park."

Despite the fact that the memory should've been awkward to retell Angus couldn't help but smile as he reminisced over Gregg. Bea was also smiling "It doesn't surprise me at all to know Gregg did that."

Angus nodded "He's really defensive over this helmet."

He pat the sides of the helmet as he talked about it, Bea then finally stood up still holding her clothes, as she walked away Bea realized that she still didn't know where the bathroom was, she spun around on her heels facing Angus again "Hey where's the bathroom?"

Angus pointed out of the kitchen and towards a door in the living room she hadn't seen yet "It's over there just be careful, Gregg's kinda broken the hot water nob so it's may fall off."

Bea nodded as she turned back around and walked towards the bathroom door.

* * *

9:22 A.M. Guest bedroom, room twenty.

* * *

Mae opened her eyes slowly as she woke up still very sleepy, she was lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling, she hadn't noticed last night but there was a window with had it's shades drawn, the sun's rays poured into the guest room and some of them landed on Mae's body. One of the rays landed on Mae's face hitting her directly in her eyes, Mae rolled over onto her right side to get her eyes away from the sun, once she rolled over Mae saw that Bea had, at some point in the night, left bed, Mae relaxed a little as her body tried to go back to sleep, due to her relaxing a little she could smell, as well as hear the sounds, of food being cooked which quickly woke her back up. Mae hopped out of bed and walked out of the guest room. Once she left the guest room Mae saw that the leather couch pullout bed was still... pulled-out, and sitting on the bed looking towards the kitchen was Lori, she looked really tired and even from a distance Mae could see massive bags hanging under Lori's eyes, Mae walked over to Lori and sat down at the end of the bed "Hey."

Lori looked over to Mae and waved slightly "Hey."

Mae scooted closer to Lori "Sleep well?"

Lori shrugged "Yeah, just not a morning person."

Mae nodded "Yeah, if I wasn't so wound up all the time I wouldn't be a morning person either."

Lori yawned and stretched her arms out "How so?"

Mae shrugged "From like when I was born till around eleven when ever I woke up in the morning I'd always be on the verge of tears, and we never knew why."

Lori raised an eyebrow "We?"

Mae nodded "Me, my parents, and my- my grandfather."

When Mae said "grandfather" she stared down at the ground. Lori was about to say something when Selmers caught the other two girls' attention by saying "Hey Mae! How do you like your breakfast taco?"

Mae looked up from the ground and over to Selmers "A taco. Extra cheesy."

Selmers nodded and she walked back into the kitchen, before she left Mae could see that she hadn't changed last night so she was still in her same clothes from the previous day, same with Lori. Mae hopped off of the pullout and headed into the kitchen, standing in front of the stove was Angus still in his pajamas and next to him with her phone out was Bea, she swiped upwards on her phone's screen and showed Angus it, Selmers sat at a table in the middle of the kitchen, sitting in the center of the table was Gregg's not-fascist helmet. Mae quickly realized that she missed something, she looked back over to Bea and saw that the crocodile was wearing something other than a dress and some leggings, she was wearing a baggy black short sleeve tee shirt, and a pair of dark blue capri jeans, Bea turned her head and looked over to Mae "Took you long enough."

Mae hadn't realized but she was staring at Bea's backside more then she should've so when Bea spoke up Mae quickly looked at the crocodile's face "Uh, what, oh, yeah, uh, I just."

Bea turned around fully and faced Mae, she then leaned against the counter behind her "You okay?"

Mae nodded "Yeah! Just fine!"

Bea nodded as she turned around again facing away from Mae.

Mae sat down next to Selmers and laid her head down on the table, Selmers poked Mae with the eraser of a pencil "Hey, hey, what rhymes with town?"

Mae took a moment to think "Uh... Down?.. Why do you ask?"

Selmers shrugged as Mae lifted her head off of the table so she could place her arms down and rest her head on top of them "Just trying to get your head working early, it helps, wakes you up faster. Besides I wanted to see just how good of a poet you are."

Mae stared at the open notebook Selmers had sitting in front of her "You're writing a new poem?"

Selmers nodded as she started to write something down on one of the pages "Yeah, and no peeking."

Mae nodded "You got it."

She then looked over to Gregg's helmet "Why's that there?"

Selmers shrugged as she continued to write "Found it there when I woke up, Bea says Angus had it when she woke up, and Angus's been kinda busy since I've woken up so I haven't been able to ask him why he had it out."

Mae inspected the helmet, the one time she saw in in person was when her Gregg and Casey were forced to break into one of Gregg's relatives' house in September Valley, Gregg had used it to smash open a window, Mae could still see the scratches in the helmet from when it smashed that window to hundreds of pieces "I think Angus got it out so he could feel close to Gregg."

Selmers nodded "That's kinda what I thought."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them when Selmers suddenly looked at the helmet and pointed her pencil at it "Do you think it's Prussian, or Germanic?"

Mae looked over to Selmers "What?"

Selmers shrugged as she placed her pencil down on the table "I dunno, both Germany and Prussia used that kind of helmet during World War One. And I just wanted to know if you knew which one it was."

Mae looked back over to the helmet before answering "All I know is that it's not fascist, and it came from some guy Gregg's great great-grandfather shot."

Suddenly Bea placed a plate in front of Selmers, on the plate was one breakfast taco filled with all sorts of yummy things, and one biscuit. Bea then sat down a plate in front of Mae, on that plate was an extra cheesy breakfast taco, one biscuit, and two pieces of bacon. Angus then sat down in front of Mae with his own plate sitting in front of him while Bea sat at the far end of the table her plate sitting in front of her, Mae quickly picked up her taco and took a big bite out of it, cheesy several large strands of cheese stuck out of the taco and her mouth creating what looked like a bridge of cheese from the taco to Mae's mouth. After a few minutes of everyone eating in silence Lori walked into the kitchen and sat down next to Mae, Angus looked over to Lori "I don't know what kind of breakfast taco you like so I left some of the stuff out over there so you can make it however you like it."

Lori nodded "Thanks."

She then stood up and walked over to the stove and stared to make herself breakfast, Mae took one of her pieces of bacon and placed it on top of her taco's cheese before taking another bite out of it, after a minute or so Lori sat back down with a plate of what looked to be a breakfast taco filled with cheese, eggs, and sausage she took a bite out of it and looked over to Gregg's helmet, she then swallowed her bite before saying "Cool spike."

Angus nodded "Yeah, despite the fact I'm not a fan of violence, I can't deny the fact that the spike is pretty cool."

Mae looked up from her taco and grinned at Angus "Really? You're not a fan of violence? You're a fan of Demon Tower."

Angus nodded "Yes, I am a fan of Demon Tower's story, characters, and art style, not really it's game play."

Selmers finished her biscuit and started to write down in her notebook again "I read a Demon Tower book once, it was pretty good."

Angus nodded again "The books are pretty good, although I prefer the games over the books."

Mae swallowed a bite she took out of her taco "Casey once one of those books to me."

Just then a loud knocking noise could be heard from the apartment's front door. Angus got up and walked over to the front door, he cracked it open and saw standing behind the door was officer Mathews, the same officer that stopped by Angus's apartment last night to ask him a few questions about Gregg. Angus let Mathews into the apartment and as the officer entered he took of his police hat and held it with his left hand, Mae turned around in her chair and looked into the living room, she saw the officer standing in front of Angus the two of them talking "What's he doing back here?"

Bea shrugged as she finished a sip of her water she had gotten earlier "He probably wants to get some more info on Gregg."

Mae tapped her fingers against the back of her chair, after a few moments Mae hopped out of her chair and walked into the living room, she hopped up onto the pullout and stared at the officer "Hey! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out there looking for Gregg?"

The officer looked over to Mae, his stare almost suspicious "The reason why I'm here is because we need some more information on Mr. Lee, it'll help us find him faster and effectively."

Mae shot her hands up into the air "How much more info do you need!?"

The officer sighed "The department needs enough to form some sort of theory as to who would've abducted him, if anyone took him at all. He could very well have gotten lost somewhere in town, and possibly wondered off into the woods, and that's why I need more info, we don't know one hundred percent what happened to him. In some cases we don't ever know one hundred percent what actually happened to someone that went missing until they're found."

Mae let her arms drop back down to her sides "So? YOU don't have any idea as to what happened to Gregg?"

The officer raised an eyebrow in confusion "What do you mean?"

Mae rolled her eyes "What do I mean? What I mean is don't you, as a person, have any kind of theory on what happened to Gregg?"

The officer stood there silently for a moment just staring at Mae while Angus stood off to the side slightly awkward. Angus was about to speak up when the officer finally answered "Listen... I do have an idea one what happened to Greggory. I think that it could've been possible that someone from his work decided to get back at him for something, and one thing leads to another and that co-worker has to hide Greggory for whatever reason."

Angus then finally spoke up "So what you're saying is that someone from Gregg's work might have, either on purpose or not, knocked Gregg out and has him hidden away?"

The officer scratched the back of his head "Not entirely, I think it's a possibility, in fact it's probably the best case scenario other than Mr. Lee getting lost in the woods."

Mae then also spoke up "Best case scenario?"

The officer nodded "Yes, because the reason why Gregg has gone missing is because the co-worker would've panicked, and in an attempt to both keep their job and to not get arrested they would've taken Gregg somewhere and just keep him there until they recovered from whatever might have knocked him out."

Mae frowned "That doesn't sound like a " _best case scenario_ " to me."

The officer nodded again "It's one of the best, it's either that and Mr. Lee going missing in the woods, or someone has actually abducted him and is keeping him hidden somewhere in town... Or, the worst yet, Mr. Lee's either fell into, or was pushed into, the lake and has.. Well."

Mae shook her head "I know Gregg, and I know that he can make a lot of enemies, but those enemies haven't ever physically hurt Gregg, let alone kill him."

The officer looked down at the ground for a moment before looking at Mae again "Listen, miss?"

"Borowski."

"Miss Borowski, I know you come from a small town and small towns generally feel safe most of the time.. But Bright Harbor is different, despite it's nice look, it's got a pretty bad dark side, I wouldn't be surprised if some gang here in town has Mr. Lee hidden, or possibly something much worse."

Mae was about to speak again when the officer shook his head "Right now miss Borowski, I need to talk to Mr. Delaney alone."

Mae wanted to protest but she knew that letting Angus talk with the officer was probably the best choice she could make right now so she hopped off of the pullout and walked back into the kitchen.


	9. Let the Search Begin

Mae stood alone in the apartment's lobby, she'd finished breakfast before everyone else and while everyone else finished their breakfast, and after she'd gotten dressed in the same clothes she's worn almost all her life, Mae kept on trying to speed the others up so they could start looking for Gregg. Eventually Bea became annoyed with Mae and told her "If you really want to get like an early start on the search, you can go wait in the lobby for us." Mae, at first, thought that Bea's words were completely genuine but now that she was alone in the lobby sitting on a stupid leather couch she realized that Bea was just pissed at Mae and wanted some peace and quite, and Mae was starting to get pissed off because she's been waiting almost twenty minutes. While Mae waited out in the lobby the officer from both last night and breakfast came down and walked out the building, he gave Mae an almost rehearsed looking wave before he left the building and leaving Mae all alone again, that seemed like something that happens to her a lot, at some point in her life she'd just be left alone... forgotten, by the world and everyone/everything on it. The amount of time she'd be forgotten by everything would vary depending on why she was forgotten, when she was younger all of Possum Springs forgot her that was until she attacked that poor kid, Andy Cullen, at a softball game because her stupid head broke, because it made her crazy, because she saw those stupid, fucking, shapes.

As Mae sat there feeling bad for herself, thinking about the Incident, she remembered that weird dream she had in Bea's car. Where someone who claimed to be the creature in the hole tried to get Mae to work for him, but that was the only time she dreamed something like that, usually if some other worldly entity tried to contact her in her dreams she'd have multiple very similar or borderline the same kind of dreams over and over again but that hadn't happened. The guy who claimed to be the Black Goat hasn't shown up in her dreams, hell she almost forgot about that one dream until she started to think about the Incident, Mae slumped backwards on the couch out of boredom she was staring at the elevator doors just waiting for her friends to step out of them so they could go find Gregg. She could also see the same teenager from last night still standing behind the counter, and he was staring at Mae, she'd occasionally and very quickly shift her eyes so she could get a glance of him, she was half tempted to yell at him "Stop staring at me" simply because she was bored, and kinda creeped out by him luckily the sound of the elevator's doors sliding open saved the teen from Mae's shouts, Mae quickly sat up straight as the doors slid open and her friends all stepped out of it.

Almost everyone seemed to have gotten changed, Bea was still in the same clothes as before, Angus now wore a dark green sweater over a white dress shirt as well as a pair of navy colored pants and some black shoes, and of course he had his thick blacked rimmed glasses as well as his black fedora. Lori had her black hooded jacket tired around her waist by it's sleeves but for the most part she wore exactly the same things as before, and Selmers looked like she hadn't changed at all, Mae hopped off of the couch and ran over to her friends "We ready to go?"

Bea nodded "Yeah we're ready."

Mae then grew a massive smile as everyone walked out of the lobby. The sky was a bright blue color and peppered with large white fluffy clouds, various cars passed by the apartment at varying speeds, Mae could see the gigantic lake that sat several miles away from where she currently stood, the lake was just as blue as the sky and Mae could've sworn that she could see boats sailing across the lake, turned around and looked at her friends "So, where to first?"

Bea shrugged and Angus answered "Well... We should check around the areas Gregg visits frequently, that should give us a good place to start."

Mae stood there for a moment thinking of where to head first "...Gregg's work."

Selmers raised an eyebrow "What?"

Mae shrugged "Gregg's work, that's a good place to start."

Angus furrowed his own brow "But, the police have already checked that place out."

Mae grew a sly smile giving of a very concerning aura "Well... They searched the work place within the boundaries of the law... But I don't operate within the boundaries of the law."

Bea stepped forwards getting closer to Mae "Let's not break the law."

Mae blankly stared at Bea before she bolted away from them heading down the sidewalk, as she ran away Mae yelled back to her friends "Where's Gregg's work!?"

As she yelled back to her friends, they all ran after her and Angus answered with his own yell "H- He works at Survival Depot!"

Lori looked over to Angus as they ran "That's a stupid name for a store!"

Angus nodded "Y- Yeah, but it's l- local."

Selmers shook her head "Doesn't change the fact it's a stupid name."

Angus nodded as everyone continued to chase after Mae. Mae stopped in front of a crosswalk allowing everyone to catch up to her, once they did Angus doubled over placing his hands on top of his knees and started to wheeze, Angus then reached into his pant pocket, he then pulled out an inhaler and he placed the medical device's mouthpiece in his own mouth before pressing down on the top of the device and spraying it's medicine into the back of his throat. Bea rubbed Angus's back "You gonna be okay?"

Once Angus finished medicating himself he nodded, Selmers walked past both Angus and Bea and headed over to Mae "Do you even know where you're going?"

Mae shook her head "Nah."

Angus then stood straight up taking a deep breath in through his noose, Lori looked over to Angus "You good?"

Angus nodded exhaling his breath out of his mouth "Yeah, I'm good.. Just, let's not run again anytime soon."

Bea nodded "You got it.. Right?"

She glared at Mae questioning her "Yes BeaBea I promise to not just randomly run off.. Without giving you guys heads up first, anyways how do we get to Survival Depot?"

Angus took of his hat and rubbed the top of his head before answering "We're gonna cross the road right here, then take a right, we'll keep walking for a mile or so before crossing another street and taking a left. Then it'll be right there."

Mae nodded a smile growing on her face "Got it."

She then spun around and started to cross the street, as she did a car whizzed by in front of her face and Bea grabbed the back of Mae's shirt. As Bea saved Mae from getting hit by a car the cat yelled out "HOLY SHIT!"

Bea pulled Mae back onto the sidewalk "Jesus Christ Mae! What?! Where you never taught proper road safety?!"

Mae turned around and faced Bea "It was safe to cross a moment ago! How was I supposed to know?!"

Bea sighed "Mae... Just... Goddammit be safe."

She then shoved her hand into her pant pocket and pulled out her pack of cigarettes. While everyone waited for the cars to stop driving by so they could cross the road Bea pulled a cigarette out the pack and quickly lit it, just as Bea placed it in her mouth a little crosswalk traffic light thing changed from a red hand that commanded them to not cross, to a green figure of a unisex unispecies person walking which told them it was safe to cross. The walk to Survival Depot was uneventful and boring, about the most excitement that came out of the walk was from Bea occasionally tapping the top of her cigarette so some of the excess ash could fall off of it, but once they arrived Mae was filled with a sense of hope and excitement, the building it's self looked like a giant log cabin that was three stories high, in the middle of the building's front door was a giant sign that read "Survival Depot for all your outdoor needs." and the words on the sign rested on top of a giant red and white target. Mae looked over to Angus "This is what a local store looks like in Bright Harbor?"

Angus didn't look away from the building when he answered but he did shrug "It's a really successful local business."

Bea blew a puff of smoke out of her mouth before saying "Well, successful or not Gregg works here. And we came here to help find him, so we should head inside and start doing that."

Mae and Angus nodded although Mae's nod was much more energetic and proud while Angus's seemed rather nervous and hesitant, once they all walked inside the store Mae, Bea, Lori, and Selmers's jaws practically dropped at the utter size of the store's interior, the inside was as large as Fort Lucenne Mall and all of the space was used to it's full capacity, the first floor was filled with camping gear and fishing supplies, the second floor was filled with guns, knives, and all sorts of legal weaponry, then the third floor was both a shooting range and a massive library area filled with books on survival and camping, all the while the three floors were connected by a set of escalators and elevators. Lori started to breath heavily "Holy shit... It's gonna take forever to search this place... I don't think we can-"

Mae then ran over to Lori and grabbed her shoulders, and she stared into Lori's eyes "NO! We CAN search this place, we WILL search this place even if it takes us all day, why?"

"Wh- Why?"

"Because we all love and care for Gregg! We're doing this for him! We got this! Am I right?!"

As Mae finished she let go of Lori and stepped away from her so she could face the entire group, everyone gave half hearted nods and "Yeahs"

Which caused Mae to frown "I still suck at pep-talks."

Bea grinned slightly at Mae's disappointment "No, it's just that.. It's was kinda sudden and surprising."

Mae shrugged "Eh, any kind of reaction other than a punch to the face is fine by me."

She then spun back around and took a proud stance, she extended her right arm and pointed in front of herself "Are we ready?"

Bea shrugged "Guess so."

Mae then squinted her eyes like an action hero "Then let's do this.. Let's interrogate some unsuspecting employees."

She then ran off leaving everyone confused, Bea looked over to Angus "Should we split up?"

Angus slowly nodded "Yeah... Uh, Bea you find Mae.. Lori, Selmers you?"

Lori looked over to Angus "I'll go with Selmers."

Angus then nodded again "Alright. I guess I'll go alone, which is probably best. I can get into employee only areas, even though I'm not supposed to the staff gives me a pass."

Bea then clapped her hands together "Alright sounds like a plan.. Oh and before we split up, do they allow cigarettes in here or not?"

Angus shook his head "No, you can't smoke in here."

Bea then took her cigarette out of her mouth and pushed the door behind her open, she then tossed the cigarette out of the building and let the door close shut again, the rest of the group then split up heading off in different directions, Angus headed for the third floor, Lori and Selmers went for the second, and Bea chased after Mae who was all the way in the back of the first floor. Bea scoured through an aisle of fishing polls searching for Mae, when at the final corner aisle at the very back of the store Bea found Mae crouched down in the corner staring at something "Mae, I thought you said you wouldn't just run off without a heads up.. What are you looking at?"

Mae at first didn't notice Bea so the crocodile threw her lighter at Mae "Hey, are you paying attention? And I hope you're holding on to that, I can't get another anytime soon."

Mae raised her right arm up showing that she had picked up Bea's lighter and was holding it in her right arm "I got it.. No I wasn't paying attention."

Bea walked over to Mae "Why's that?"

Mae then pointed at something in the corner "Check this out."

Bea peered over Mae's head and saw a little hole in the wall "It's a mouse hole."

Mae nodded "Yeah."

Bea rubbed her forehead out of frustration "What's so important about the hole that you're crouched over here just staring at it?"

Mae shrugged "I just wanted to see if who ever lives in there wants something to eat."

Bea raised an eyebrow in confusion as she squatted down next to Mae "What do you mean by who ever lives in there?"

Mae looked over to Bea "Well it's a mouse hole, and I heard some squeaking coming from it a little bit ago."

Bea inspected the hole but she couldn't see anything in it "Why do you want to feed the rodent that lives in there?"

Mae grinned slightly "Well... Back in Possum Springs I kinda, accidentally, became the mother of a nest of rats."

Bea stared at Mae in complete confusion "How do you accidentally become the mother of a rat nest?"

Mae shrugged a nervous grin on her face "By deciding to feed the rat nest and just keep on doing that everyday."

Bea continued to blankly stare at Mae mouth slightly agape in confusion "Okay, wait.. So first, where do your pet rats live? Second, how the fuck did you find them? And third, how do you plan on feeding THIS rat and or mouse?"

Mae dug her hand into her pant pocket as she answered "They aren't my pets, they're my rat-children and they live in the Telezoft building, in a storage room... Specifically they live inside of a hole in Mallard P. Bloomingro, and I found them when I snuck into the building and took a peek inside of the hole in Mallard, and I plan on feeding this rat/mouse this."

She then pulled out a large crumb of bread and showed it to Bea. She inspected the large crumb Mae had pulled out of her pocket "Ignoring the fact you image those rats as your children, when and where did you get that?"

Mae placed the crumb in front of the hole and looked back over to Bea "I found it in the guest bedroom while I changed."

Bea grinned slightly "So what. You found a crumb on the ground and thought that you should pocket it encase you ever found a hungry Vermin animal?"

Mae shrugged "Kinda, I also pocketed it encase someone tried to jump us, and if someone did I'd chunk the chunk at them hoping to hit em' in the eye."

Bea nodded "Huh."

Just then a little grey rat came out of the hole and started to eat the large crumb of bread. After the rat finished the crumb it scurried back into it's hole disappearing, Mae and Bea both stood up and the cat looked over to her friend "Alright now that I've cured my home sickness for awhile let's get down to some interrogation."

Bea stuck her hands into her pockets "Alright, there's a counter nearby.. Follow me."

Bea then led Mae to a counter which was set up so it could checkout anyone that made their way to the back of the store. Standing behind the checkout counter was a blue feathered bird who looked to be around fifteen or nineteen, the teen wore a beige colored cargo shirt and a pair of blue jeans as well as a pair of brown work boots, clipped to his left chest pocket was a ID card that read "Eric Devault" the teen saw Bea and Mae approaching and seemed to perk up, which was probably because nobody ever came to the very back of the store. The teen grew a big smile once they reached the counter "Hi! Uh, welcome to Survival Depot, how can I help you?"

Mae slammed her hands onto the counter and used the to push herself up making her level with the teen's head "Where's Gregg?! What did you do to him?!"

Bea then wrapped her arms around Mae's waist and took her off of the counter "I'm sorry about my friend, she's kinda... Emotional and over-reactive."

The teen stared at Mae slightly confused "Uh... It's uh, fine I guess. But what was that about Gregg?"

Mae squirmed around in Bea's arms and attempted to say something but Bea covered the cat's mouth with her hand "A person named Greggory Harper Lee recently went missing and he works here. So me and my friends are hoping to find somebody that might know Gregg and know where he is."

The teen nodded silently going "Oh."

Before he spoke up fully "Well.. I know WHO Greggory is but I haven't really met him in person."

Mae almost kicked Bea in her leg while she squirmed. Bea let go of Mae letting her drop to the ground, Mae then looked over to the teen "Alright, you know who Gregg is, but you haven't met him. But do you know where he is?"

The teen shook his head "I'm sorry I don't know where he is... But I do know someone who might know where he is... Her name is Amanda Michelle, and she's the store's current manager, usually at the time of day she's up on the third floor doing... What ever it is she does, I barely know what Ian over there does most of the day because I'm stuck here at the back of the store."

As he said a fellow employee's name he waved he motioned over to his left pointing over to a counter at the front of the store. Bea smiled "Thanks for the help, also what does Amanda look like?"

The employee grinned slightly and blushed to himself "Uh.. She's uh, she's a brown furred canine.. Oh and she's got bright blue eyes, like they practically glow."

Mae smiled "Awesome thanks!"

She then grabbed Bea's arm and led her away from the counter towards a set of escalators that'd take them up to the third floor. As they rode the first set of escalators up to the second floor Mae looked over to Bea "You notice how he reacted to your smile?"

Bea was blankly staring forwards and she continued to do as such even as she answered "Yeah I saw, but I was just trying to be nice. I mean the poor guy's stuck in the back of the store all alone for hours on end."

Mae looked over to her right and caught a quick glance of Eric Devault "It must suck to be stuck back there for a long time."

Mae's words sounded slightly bitter and maybe even sarcastic which caught Bea's attention, she looked over to Mae "What's up with you?"

Just as Bea asked Mae her question the two of them reached the second floor and stepped off of the escalator, as they walked over to the final escalator that'd take them up to the third floor Mae answered Bea's question with her own question "What do you mean?"

And as they stepped onto the first moving step Bea answered Mae's question/answer "I dunno you just seemed kinda bitter.. Like that kid's reaction to my dumb ass smile made you... Jealous."

Mae quickly shook her head "NO! I'm not jealous... Just kinda mad he wasn't all that much help."

Bea rolled her eyes "But he did help us.. He told us where to find Amanda and what she looks like."

Mae shrugged "I guess you're right.. I was just hoping for something more immediate."

Bea placed her hand on Mae's head and started to rub it comforting the cat slightly "I know you want to help your friends but you gotta have some patience, it's not like those TV shows where the detectives find a clue or two before the criminal does something stupid and gives himself away."

Mae frowned "I guess you're right."

Bea took her hand off of Mae's head and grinned slightly "I'm always right."

Mae rolled her eyes scoffing at that.


	10. Late Night Ally Search

Mae and Bea reached the top of the escalator finally reaching the third and final floor of the very successful local business. The two of them stepped off of the escalator and started to look around for Amanda which was currently the only person that might've known where Gregg was, after a minute or so of looking around Mae tugged on Bea's shirt and pointed over to a glass counter that had several books on display, leaning against the counter talking to an employee behind it was a brown furred, brightly blue eyed, canine that had to have been Amanda. Bea and Mae approached Amanda and the employee behind the glass counter pointed to the two of them which alerted Amanda to their presence, the store's manager smiled widely and brightly as Mae and Bea approached her "Hello there! And welcome to the Survival Depot! What can I do for you?"

As Mae approached Amanda she saw that the canine was actually quite muscular and very good looking, once the other two were at an adequate distance from Amanda Bea answered the manager's question "We were hoping you could help us with something."

Amanda placed her hands on her hip still smiling brightly "And what can I help you with?"

Bea and Mae both looked at each other slightly nervous, they weren't sure how Amanda would react to their question so Mae, the queen of jumping head first into things without another thought, quickly asked "Gregg's gone missing and we were hoping if you may have know where he was yesterday?"

Amanda's smile melted away and a slightly concerned look on her face grew in the place of it "Oh... Well uh, Gregg was working on the second floor, he was tasked with restocking some of the shelves, and he left work perfectly fine."

Bea rubbed the back of her head "Is there any chance that you might've over heard what Gregg had planed after work?"

Amanda sighed "I'm not supposed to share personal information of employees with anyone other than officers... But I know Gregg, and I know that he hasn't been in town long enough to make an enemy who'd actually kidnap him.. So... Yes I did over hear something, Gregg was talking to another employee about a party the two of them had been invited to."

Mae's left ear twitched slightly as a twinge of hope and excitement surged through her body "Do you know where that party might've been?"

Amanda nodded "Yeah, it was being held at a restaurant called "A Little Bite of Italy" it's over by the lake, Angus should know where it is."

Bea raised an eyebrow inquisitively "How'd you know we know Angus?"

Amanda winked "You're searching for Gregg, and I know from the numerous times Gregg's said it, that he only has three friends.. One of which is his boyfriend."

Selmers walked down an aisle stocked with various kinds of hunting rifles, sitting on top of her shoulders was Lori who was looking around trying to find any of their friends. They had searched around for awhile and eventually found someone who said that Gregg had gone with one of his co-workers to a party at some restaurant but that was the only thing they could find out about what Gregg had done yesterday so they'd kinda given up and were now looking for their friends so they could relay their news to them. Lori rested her arms on top of Selmers's head "Do you think we'll actually be able to find Gregg?"

Selmers continued to walk forwards as she responded "Of course we will, why do you think we won't?"

Lori shrugged "I just... Well I have two different thoughts, one is that nobody can find Gregg and he's just missing forever, then the second thought is that WE can't find him but the police do.. And I just want to know, can we, or will we, find him?"

Selmers silently thought to herself for a moment "...I think that, if we can't find him then the police will, Gregg hasn't disappeared, he's still in town we just gotta find out where."

Lori was about to say something when she saw Angus come out of a door labeled "Employee only staircase" she quickly pointed at him and said "There's Angus!"

Selmers then walked over to Angus who smiled slightly when he saw Lori sitting on top of Selmers's shoulders. Once Selmers finally reached Angus she readjusted Lori's position on her shoulders "So.. Find anything out?"

Angus shrugged "Kinda, about the only thing I've found out is that he went to a party after work."

Lori perked up when Angus mentioned the party "That's the only thing we found out too!"

Angus scratched the bottom of his chin "Huh, it's kinda weird that that's the one thing the other employees know what Gregg did after work."

Lori nodded and Selmers did her best to nod without making Lori lose her balance, just then the three of them heard Mae yell over to them "Guys! Guys! We know where Gregg went after work!"

After Mae and Bea informed their other friends about how Gregg went to A Little Bite of Italy for a party Angus almost immediately had everyone leave the store and begin to make their way over to the restaurant along the way Selmers had Lori get off her shoulders because she couldn't feel her arms. When the finally arrived at the restaurant the sun was just barely starting to set and the almost purple but still very much blue glow of the sky made the lake shimmer as if it was filled with magical sparkles of watery perfection. The restaurant was a rather slim, two story high, red bricked, almost apartment looking building, on the front of the building next to it's double glass doors were two large windows that both had an image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa that had meat sauce covered spaghetti placed on top of it and had the name of the restaurant placed on top of the spaghetti topped tower. The restaurant was flanked on both sides by what looked to be an office building and a boat and bike rental shop, although it wasn't all that close to dinner time yet there was still a rather sizable amount of people sitting inside the restaurant already eating their supper, Bea looked over to Angus as she took one last drag off of her cigarette before blowing smoke out of her mouth "How are we gonna do this?"

Angus hesitated slightly before answering "I.. I don't know, I'm sure we can just ask some of the establishment's staff if they saw Gregg last night and figure things out from there."

Mae also looked over to Angus "I'm guessing that means I can't threaten to bash someone's kneecaps in if they don't tell me where Gregg was?"

Angus nodded and everyone in the group in unison said "Yes."

Before they all walked into the restaurant and as they did Bea tossed her cigarette's but into a trash can that sat outside. When they entered the smell of fine Italian cuisine being cooked fresh burst into their noses and made most of their mouth's almost water with hunger, but they were able to ignore the smell of food and replace it with the need to find Gregg, Mae then walked away from the group heading for a waiter how must've been on their brake or was just bad at their job because they were standing in the corner looking at their phone, Selmers looked over to Angus and Bea "Guess we slit up again."

Bea nodded sadly "Guess so, I'll go keep an eye on Mae."

She then followed after Mae while Angus and Lori walked over to another part of the store and leaving Selmers to just wonder around. Mae calmly approached the female dark scaled crocodile who was dressed in a black shirt, long black skirt, and had a white apron tied around her waist. Mae cleared her throat once she reached the waitress "Could I-"

The waitress immediately cut Mae off "I'm sorry but I'm actually off of work right now so I can't take your order."

Mae stood there confused for a moment "If you're off work then why are you still in your work clothes?"

The waitress rolled her eyes "Cuz my boyfriend hasn't gotten here yet."

Mae was still very confused "How does your boyfriend not being here affect you still being in your work clothes?"

The waitress groaned and turned off her phone before sliding it into a pocket on her apron "Because I live with my boyfriend and I forgot to bring my after-work clothes so I could change in the bathroom so I have to wait for him to come and pick me up so he can take me home."

Mae stood there silently as Bea approached her from behind. Bea looked over to Mae who was so confused that she just stood there staring at the waitress, Bea flicked Mae's right ear which quickly brought the cat back into reality, Bea then continued for Mae "We were wondering if you could help us with something that isn't food related."

The waitress sighed as she looked over to Bea "What is it?"

Bea crossed her arms and stared at the waitress with a deadpan face "You see yesterday our friend, Greggory Harper Lee, came here for a party and.. Well... After that he went missing, we were just hoping that you could give us some information on what he was like after the end of the party."

The waitress thought to herself for a moment "Sorry I wasn't here yesterday, it was my day off, but my boyfriend was there, he was the one hosting the party."

Just as the waitress finished her sentence Lori ran over to Mae and Bea "Guys Angus's got a lead."

Bea and Mae then followed Lori as they headed towards Angus, as they left the waitress behind Bea was half tempted to flip her off but she decided not to "make a scene" As her mother would put it. Angus, Selmers, and a yellow furred cat dressed in a plaid shirt and blue jeans were outside sitting at a table talking to each other. Bea, Mae, and Lori left the building and walked over to Angus. There were three chairs left empty for Mae, Bea, and Lori for them to sit in, once they sat down Angus looked over to his three other friends "Guys this is Richard Dunham he's a friend of Gregg's at work."

Richard waved "Hi'ya, I've heard that you need my help?"

Mae nodded "Yeah, Gregg's gone missing and... I don't know what makes you different from the rest of Survival Depot's employees."

Richard chuckled "Well I was the host of the party that happened here so I know what might've happened to Gregg."

Bea furrowed her brow "Might've?"

Richard nodded "Gregg left early so I don't know exactly what might've happened."

Angus sighed "Well any kind of information is welcome, what do you got?"

Richard then readjusted how he was sitting in his chair and placed his arms on top of the table "So after Gregg left and I went to the bathroom I heard the sounds of two people struggling to do something come through the bathroom's right wall, which is the wall that faces that ally right there."

He then pointed to an ally that separated the office building from the restaurant but it was blocked off by a chain link fence with a single gate that was locked. Bea looked away from the ally and back over to Richard "And?"

He then continued "Well I'm not one hundred percent sure what I'm about to say is true, but I think Gregg may have been dragged into the ally and the sound of two people struggling might've been Gregg trying to fight back. Of course at the time I didn't know Gregg was in danger of going missing so I didn't check out the noises."

Mae was tapping one of her fingers on the top of the table which was one of her nervous tendencies "But the gate's locked, how did someone drag Gregg into there?"

Richard grinned "The gate wasn't locked last night. It was shut, it just wasn't locked, I don't know why and at the time I hadn't thought twice about it so I didn't ask."

Selmers had her pencil out and had her notebook open but the pages were empty "How are we gonna get in there?"

He shrugged "Right now, you can't. But one thing I have noticed was that after the party, at around six the gate is left unlocked for whatever reason so if you wanna go looking for clues you gotta wait till them, and I suggest you do that by getting something to eat. Inside of course, cuz if whoever unlocks that gate sees you guys watching him he'll probably not unlock it."

Angus nodded "That's a good idea."

Everyone got up and Richard started to walk away when Mae asked him one last question "How did you know the gate keeps on getting unlocked at six?"

Richard then turned around and started to walk away backwards "I live on this street and I pass by this place all the time, so I know when something changes."

He then spun back around and continued to walk as the group reentered the restaurant. Their dinner was boring and slightly stressful, Mae had forgotten what everyone had for dinner because of the stress but despite that they had somehow stretched out their dinner to last till six at night. After paying for the meal the friend group left the restaurant and over to the chain link fence, Mae pushed the gate open "Okay... What now?"

Bea then started to walk into the ally as she answered "Like Richard said, we search for clues or evidence."

Everyone else then also entered the ally and started to look around, on both sides of the ally resting against the two different walls that made up ally were two large green dumpsters, and scattered all over the place was various kinds of trash ranging from plastic bottles to flattened boxes, and at the far end of the ally was a large brick wall that connected the restaurant to the office, and in the middle of that wall was a rusted green metal door. Mae looked at the wall with the metal door "What's with the wall?"

Angus, who was looking through a pile of candy wrappers, looked up from it and over to Mae "This area of the lake is prone to flooding at certain times of the year so any building that is near the lake is mandatory to have a wall high enough to block the rising water."

Mae looked away from the wall and over to Angus "I'm guessing that's why the door is rusty."

Angus shrugged "Could be, or it could just be an old door."

He then went back to sifting through the pile of wrappers and Mae started also look around for some clue as to what might've happened yesterday. Selmers suddenly stood up "I think I found something!"

Everyone then ran over to Selmers, who was holding a piece of paper, she then showed everyone the paper which read " _Meet me at 7:14 at night._ "

But below that first sentence was another one in a different type of hand writing, and below that one was another sentence in the hand writing at the top of the paper, somebody was having a conversation on this paper over who knows what and it continued with: " _You weren't here._ "

" _Got caught up with personal business I'll make it tomorrow though._ "

" _I'm starting to think you're fucking with me, this is the second time you haven't shown up._ "

" _What do you want me to do? We need this money!_ "

" _We have enough to do this._ "

" _Yeah we have enough money, but if we use it we'll get caught. So if you don't want to get caught you're gonna let me keep on doing it._ "

" _You weren't here all day._ "

" _Dude something's happened, and it's freaked me right the fuck out, meet me here at 6:04 I promise I'll be here._ "

Lori looked up from the note and asked "What time is it?"

Angus then reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone so he could check the time "It's.. 6:04."

Just then the metal door started to creek open. Everyone scattered, Lori, Angus, and Bea hid behind them dumpster on the restaurant's side of the ally while, Mae and Selmers hid behind the dumpster on the office's side of the ally, just as they all hid from view the metal door opened completely and someone started to walk down the ally, plastic and glass shards crunched their shoes as they walked. Mae scanned the spot she was hiding in, fear and anger started to eat away at her, she believed wholeheartedly that the person who was walking down the ally was the same person that kidnapped Gregg, and Mae wanted to knock the kidnapper's teeth in. As the person started to walk farther down the ally getting closer to the dumpsters Mae found a metal pipe and picked it up, she held the pipe like a bat and just as she was about to jump out from behind the dumpster and attack the person walking down the ally Selmers tugged at Mae's shirt and whispered "What are you doing?"

Mae then whispered back "I'm about to fuck that guy up."

She then jumped out from behind the dumpster, yelling, she held the bat up ready to strike the kidnapper, but when Mae jumped out from behind the dumpster and saw the other person she couldn't believe her eyes "Steve Scriggins?!"

Steve was holding a brown cardboard box in his arms, he was wearing a dark green jacket that had a sergeant symbol pointing downwards on his left sleeve, under his jacket was a dark grey undershirt, he was also wearing a pair of blue jeans and brown work boots, that outfit was the same one Steve wore when he first met Mae. Steve was at first shocked by Mae when she jumped out from behind the dumpster holding a metal pipe but when she yelled out his name Steve glared at Mae "What the fucking are you doing back here?" Mae lowered the metal pipe but she didn't let go of it "No the question in what are YOU doing back here Steve?"

As Mae finished her question her friends stepped out form behind the dumpsters they were hiding behind and walked over to Mae, Steve rolled his eyes "God, seriously what are you ladies doing back here?"

Mae then pointed her pipe at Steve's face "Answer my question Scriggins."

He readjusted his grip on the box filled with who knows what "Fine.. My parents and brother lives here."

Bea's eyes didn't look at Steve's face but her head did face him, Steve saw how Bea was trying to avoid looking at him and he inspected her, she seemed familiar to him but he couldn't place his finger on it, that was till a memory resurfaced in his mind and it all kicked "BeaBea? Holy hell, what are you doing with these ladies?"

Mae's eyes widened in complete shock "WHAT?!"

Bea groaned and finally made eye contact with Steve "These are my friends, Stevie Scriggs."

He shook his head "Please don't ever call me that again."

Bea folded her arms on top of her chest "Then don't ever call me BeaBea."

While Bea and Steve talked to each other Mae continued to look at the both of them in shock "HOW DO YOU TWO KNOW EACH OTHER?!"

Steve grinned slyly "Heh, well let's just say I gave her the time of her life."

Bea rolled her eyes "You wish... Mae you remember when those teens at the graveyard made us spill some personal memories to them?"

Mae shook her head and Bea continued "You remember my story of Math Camp?"

Mae shook her head slowly hoping that Bea wasn't about to say what she thought she was about to say and Bea finished "I never told you the guy I did it with, but now I will.. It's this fucker right here."

She pointed right at Steve and he continued to grin slyly "Guilty as charged."

Mae then ran her hands along the sides of her head "Okay okay okay, none of that matters. Because Steve here kidnapped Gregg."

Steve chuckled "Jesus Borowski jumped to conclusions much?"

Mae shook her head while Bea nodded, Mae took the paper from Selmers and showed it to Steve "How do you explain this?"

Steve made a motion that showed he couldn't hold the paper and the box so Mae placed it on top of the box so Steve could read it. After he finished reading it Steve looked up from the paper and over to Mae "First, whoever dug this out of the trash is gonna need some kind of shot. Second, this little paper is a secret between me and my brother so I'm not gonna explain it, and fuck you I haven't kidnapped Gregg."

Bea huffed "How the hell can we trust you?"

Steve shrugged "That's your choice but think about this, why would I take him?"

Everyone went silent in thought, eventually Mae sighed "He's right, he has no motive."

She then dropped the pipe on the ground and crossed her arms in disappointment. Bea then spoke up "Aright so you haven't taken Gregg, but we still have three more questions that need to be answered."

He rolled his eyes "Shoot."

Bea then continued "First is what are you doing here?"

Steve hesitated slightly before answering "I- I'm visiting my parents for the next few weeks for my mother's birthday, soooo me and my brother are secretly trying to get her a present, and before you ask that's what the note is for."

Bea then asked the next question "You said before that you live here?"

He nodded "Yeah I live 'round here but you aren't getting anything other than that so don't even tr-"

Just then, a light came through a window on the second floor of the restaurant before it slid open and a dark blue scaled crocodile stuck his upper body out of it, nobody could see what he was wearing other than a white tank top, the croc then stared straight down at Steve "Hurry up!"

The other crocodile had an oddly Italian accent, Steve rolled his eyes and turned to face the other croc "I would've been done by now.. If these assholes hadn't popped out of nowhere and interrogated me!"

The other croc looked over to Mae and her friends then back to Steve "What do they want?"

Steve shot a quick glare at Mae before answering "An old friend of mine from Possum Springs has gone missing apparently and they've accused me of taking him."

The other croc looked back over to Mae and friends "I know that Steve's a bit of a criminal but trust me, he hasn't had the opportunity to kidnap anyone since he's started his visit."

Steve silently muttered to himself "Gee thanks Andy."

Mae stepped forwards and spoke up "Wait, you're Steve's brother?"

The other croc nodded "Yeah, name's Andrew, but you can call me Andy."

Lori silently said to herself "He's already nicer than Steve."

Then the sound of someone talking to Andy came from the window. Once the other person finished talking to Andy he looked back over to Steve "Dad says he's found it so hurry up."

Mae then stepped in front of Steve "Found what?"

He grunted and rolled his eyes "A stupid possum snuck into our basement, and this box is filled with ingredients that rodent's taken a bite out of."

Selmers then spoke up "Wait, you live on top of the restaurant?"

Steve nodded "Mom and dad run it, mom's the cook dad handles the financial crap."

Andy then spoke up again "Yeah and if you don't hurry up dad's gonna put several bullet holes in the basement if we don't get down there."

Steve the shouted back to Andy "I'm going!"

He then shoved past Mae and her friends heading for the exit of the ally. As Steve shoved the gate open with his foot Mae yelled over to him "Wait! Do you have any sort of idea on what happened to Gregg?!"

Steve then yelled over to Mae "I don't know! Ask Andy!"

Before finally leaving the ally heading, Mae then turned around and looked up to Andy "So, do you have any idea on what happened to Gregg?"

He shrugged "Maybe, Gregg's that yellow fox right?"

Angus nodded "Yes he was here yesterday for a party."

Andy nodded "He was here for that party.. Yeah I may have an idea as to what happened to him, I saw him walk home but some body was stalking behind him... Although that guy could've been high off his mind and was just walking weirdly behind Gregg."

Angus stepped forwards trying to get closer to Andy "Is that all you saw?"

He nodded sadly "I'm sorry but no. I didn't see anything after that."

Angus sighed "Alright."

He then turned around and faced his friends "Let's.. Head back to my place."

Angus then started to walk away when Andy spoke up "Hey! I may not have seen what happened to Gregg but I think I can still help. There's a guy I know, he's a... How can I put this, he's like a hacker I guess. Anyways he can probably get access to some traffic cameras and find out what happened to Gregg."

Angus turned back around "Wait what?"

Andy nodded "Yeah, stop by tomorrow uh there's a door labeled "Private Staircase" in the restaurant it leads up to here, my parent's place, just knock on it and I'll let you in."

Angus nodded "Alright, yeah, okay! When should we come over?"

Andy shrugged "I don't care when just make sure it sometime in the day."

Angus nodded again "Got it."

He then turned back around and started to walk out of the ally, Mae and her friends then followed Angus out of the ally as he headed back to his apartment.


	11. Mae, Queen of Bad Decisions

Mae and her friend group walked down the long concrete sidewalk that led up to Angus's apartment, leading the group was Angus who had, despite his asthma, managed to get ahead of them. The only things illuminating the sidewalks and the streets were the various lamp posts that towered over the concrete pathways, of course there was the occasional car with it's headlights on that would drive by and bath the group in light when it did, the dark almost unlit sidewalk, the sounds of nature, and the night sky all combined together was almost hypnotic. Everyone was sleepy and they were practically dragging their feet as they walked, all except for Mae who was practically skipping as if she wasn't tired at all, which she probably wasn't, she never really got tired unless she got sick or if she laid herself down on a bed for a minute or two, Bea was walking along side Mae and she had a cigarette in her mouth, Bea would occasionally look over to Mae and watch her for a little bit, as she watched she'd become both amused and annoyed all at once. She was amused because despite Mae's age she still acted like a kid, and she was annoyed because just watching Mae still be filled with so much energy made Bea all the more tired, she was also pretty cold, she had her arms wrapped around her chest and was almost shivering, the only source of heat in her entire body was the cigarette that rested between her lips but that was slowly burning away, like it was supposed to, but even though it was supposed to burn away it still made Bea angry, it was about the only thing keeping her from shivering like a chihuahua.

Mae looked over to Bea "You okay BeaBea?"

Bea hadn't noticed it yet but she'd started to shiver a little more then she had before, and it must've been noticeable, "Yeah I'm fine. Or I will be fine once we get inside."

Angus looked over his should and at Bea "Don't worry we're almost there."

Bea smiled "Alright, thanks."

She then took a drag off of her cigarette and puffed it's smoke out of her mouth, finishing off her cigarette her only source of warmth, she tossed the butt of the cigarette down onto the ground and rubbed this sides of her body trying to warm herself up "I know it's Autumn, I know that it's night time, but what I don't get is why it's so damn cold!.. It never got this cold back at Possum Springs!"

Angus nodded "Yeah, so the wind that comes into town rolls over the lake, which is always cold during both Autumn and Winter, and into town bringing the cold with it."

Lori muttered under her breath "Stupid lake and wind."

She too had her arms wrapped around herself trying to keep herself warm, Selmers and Mae shrugged but Mae was the first to speak up "Never been all that affected by the cold."

Selmers then said "And I'm covered from head to toe with thick fur so I don't get cold, I get really effing hot."

Angus nodded "Same here."

Bea shivered slightly as she said "Well you two are lucky, hell all of you are lucky, Lori maybe cold but she's not as cold as I am. I don't got any fur just scales, and they are super cold and heat absorbent."

Mae smiled slightly "Doesn't help you're not wearing Autumn clothes.. Besides scales are cool, they get to shimmer and shine in the day light! And they're so smooth that any kind of liquid that you spill on yourself just rolls right off!"

Bea sighed "And right onto your clothes, you may think scales are cool, but fur is better. It's so soft, and comfortable, not only that but you can dye it all sorts of colors."

Selmers looked over to Bea "Can't you get your scales painted, isn't that like getting fur dyed?"

Bea shook her head "No, paint lasts for a day or two, dyed fur can last forever. Just ask Mae, that little tuft of dyed fur on the top of her head has been there since she was six."

Lori looked over to Mae "Wait really?"

Mae nodded "Oh yeah, I had seen this cool kid in school with dyed hair and wanted it myself but my parents wouldn't let me get anything dyed... But my granddad was perfectly fine with it."

Selmers grinned "Your granddad sounds like a really cool guy Mae."

She nodded "Yep, he's the best granddad in Possum Springs... Or he was."

Lori raised and eyebrow in confusion "Was?"

Mae nodded sadly "Yeah, was. He passed away when I was nine."

Selmers sighed "Damn, that sucks... I would've liked to have met him."

Mae smiled "He was a nice guy, despite the fact he'd occasionally do things with me without my parent's permission he was a nice guy, he got along with them a lot, he was also nice to all of my friends, including Bea. He actually had a little notch in his ear like mine."

Once she mentioned her right ear's notch it twitched emphasizing what she said. Lori snapped her fingers "That reminded me, how did you get that notch in your ear?"

Mae shrugged "I was young and dumb."

Bea then added "Still are."

But Mae continued talking and ignored her "One day I was walking home from Bea's alone, cuz I was a badass kid, and a stray dog walked by me, and me being a young kid I chased after it so I could pet it, well after a little while of chasing it suddenly stopped and I did too, I feel down onto the ground face fist, but that wasn't the worst of it, that stupid dog then bit down on my ear. It took a minute or two for someone to come and help me, that same stranger took me back to my house and my parents rushed me to a nearby hospital, and they had to remove the bits that were still hanging on."

Everyone stopped when Mae told them about how she got her ear damaged, Angus looked at her "That sounds traumatizing."

Mae nodded "Yeah it kinda was, but I got this cool notch in my ear from it!"

She then wiggled her right ear several times a big smile on her face, as everyone started to walk again Lori looked over to Mae "How'd your granddad get his notch?"

Mae shrugged "Never really told me anything other than it was a mining accident."

Selmers chuckled "Must've been really blood and gruesome if he didn't tell you the full story, and it also seems like the whole _notch in your ear_ thing is a family trait."

Mae grinned "Guess so."

Right as she finished her sentence she had a sickening thought. The only people in the whole of Possum Springs she'd seen with a notch in their ear was herself, her granddad, and Eide the guy that had tried to kill her in the mines last year, could he be, no, no her granddad died when she was nine, she went to his funeral, she had the worst luck a nine year old could get and watched him die, Eide couldn't have been her granddad, he wasn't even the same body type, Eide was to slim to be her granddad, and again her granddad died long before Eide started doing things, at least she thinks it was a long time before he started kidnapping people. He'd sounded pretty young to her, so he must've been at least twenty to thirty years old, Eide wasn't her grandfather, he couldn't be him, he was to young, and slim, and... evil, to be her grandfather, he had to "Mae you okay?"

She looked over to Bea who had knocked her out of Mae's trance "Uh, y- yeah I'm fine."

Bea nodded and shivered "You didn't look fine to me, you were staring at the pavement as if it had insulted your entire life."

Mae smirked slightly "Nah I was just thinking."

Bea looked forwards again and said "That's dangerous."

Mae then yelled out "Hey!"

But before she could say anything else the sound of something being slam onto the ground rung through the silent city, Mae hadn't noticed before but they were standing next to a big parking garage, it was mostly empty, and the sound had come from in there, the sound had made everyone stop dead in their tracks out of either fear or curiosity. Mae stared at the almost pitch black interior of the parking garage "What was that?"

Angus shrugged "No idea, but that is directly next to a shopping mall, could've been someone setting something down on the ground."

Mae looked over to Angus a look of disbelief on her face "Really, really hardly?"

Angus nodded "Must've been heavy."

Bea also stared into the parking garage's interior "Doesn't matter what was being slammed onto the ground, all that matters is that it doesn't effect us."

Selmers nodded "Yeah you're right, let's get going."

Everyone then walked away from the parking garage, all except for Mae who stood there still staring at the it in curiosity, she quickly glanced over to her friends who hadn't noticed that Mae wasn't there yet, then back to the parking garage, her friends, the garage, friends, garage. Mae silently said to herself "Just... A quick look around, I'm agile, I can get out of there and back to my friends in no time."

She then sprinted into the parking garage determined to find the source of that slamming sound, Bea heard the sound of someone running behind her, she looked over her shoulder and caught a quick look of Mae as she ran into the parking garage "Goddammit Mae, guys! Mae ran into the parking garage!"

Everyone then turned back around and went into the parking garage after Mae. She looked around the parking garage, she was only on the ground floor and from what she saw outside it had about three to four floors other than the ground level, it was dark inside of the garage so it was hard to see in front of herself but she could see that there was a line of cars parked in front of her, they all lined up to create a wall that prevented her from seeing past them. Just then someone grabbed Mae's shoulder and she quickly spun around to see that Bea had grabbed it "Mae, for the third time today, what did we say about running off without telling anyone, also. Why the heck are you in here?"

Mae let out a sigh of relief, Bea had really scared her when she grabbed Mae's shoulder "I don't know, I guess I just thought that maybe it had something to do with Gregg."

Angus, who was standing next to Bea, shook his head "No, this parking garage is nowhere near the Sports Depot."

Mae sighed "I know, I just thought-"

She was suddenly cut off by someone turning on some sort of light source, Mae turned around and saw that the light was coming from behind the line of parked cars, that must've been where the sound had come from. She quickly dashed over to the cars and hid in between the two that were closest to the light source, she looked through the windows of the car that sat on her right and saw that a red and orange bird dressed in a blue hoodie, black shorts, and blue sandals was talking to a crocodile that was wearing a white tee shirt, blank athletic pants that had a red strip running along both it's sides, and white sneakers. There was something sitting in between the two other people but before Mae could see what it was Bea suddenly whispered to Mae "What are you doing?!"

Mae looked over to Bea, who was crouched down next to Mae, slightly annoyed and shocked "These guys are being sketchy."

Bea raised an eyebrow in confusion "So what?! None of this matters to you!"

Angus, who was crouched down behind Bea, poked his head over her and nodded "Yeah, like I said before there's a shopping mall on the other side of this parking garage, they're probably just handling some heavy stuff they bought in there."

Mae shook her head "That doesn't explain why they lit up a lantern, or why they're just standing there."

Selmers, who was crouched down behind Lori who was crouched down behind Angus, looked through the car's windows and was able to see what was in between the other two people "Hey, they got a big black duffel bag just sitting on the ground. Looks like it's open too."

Mae looked back through the car's windows and saw the bird squat down to take something out of the duffel bag, and as he did Mae suddenly jumped out from her cover confronting them. As Mae confronted the two guys Bea tried to grab her shirt but she was too slow, once Mae jumped up from out of the cover she yelled out "Hey! Stop what ever it is you're doing!"

The croc spun around and looked at Mae, he physically recoiled from her out of shock and fear, but the fear was a kind of fear Mae had only seen once before. It was the kind of fear that Andy Cullen had after the Incident when she was younger, the fear of being near her because she was dangerous, or could be dangerous, except his expression was more of "I've been told to not be near you" something Mae had also seen before, as for the bird. When Mae confronted them he had his hand inside of the duffel bag searching for something, but when she yelled at them he stood upright a look of shock on his face that had a slight twinge of fear in it, not as much as the croc but it was there. Bea tried her best to silently get Mae to come to her, to hid again, but Mae would just glance over to her when ever she made a gesture of "Get over here now" and the bird took notice of it, he could tell that Mae kept on looking at someone that was hiding behind a car, he then suddenly shoved his hand into his hoodie's pocket and pulled out a handgun, he aimed it at Mae trying his best to make it obvious for the others "Who ever's over there! Stand up and walk to the cat slowly!"

Mae's friends followed the bird's demands, they stood up and walked over to Mae. Once the other croc saw Bea he stepped even farther away from Mae his look of utter fear growing as he did "Shit shit shit shit, I- I- I- I- I gotta, fuck, I gotta go."

He then ran out of the parking garage, as he ran the bird yelled to him "Dammit Eli! Get back here!"

The bird then glared at Mae and her friends, the look of shock and slight fear now gone, it was instead replaced with a look of rage "Do you know how much money you just coast me?! What the hell are you guys doing in here?! Nobody's walking around town at this time of night!"

Bea raised her hands up in a non-threatening manner "We're.. Not from around here, uh, we'll leave you alone and-"

The bird shook his head "No, you aren't leaving here anytime soon, not until you pay me what Eli was gonna pay me."

Angus stepped forwards trying his hardest to prevent his large size from being intimidating "How much was he gonna pay you?"

The bird crouched down, his gun still pointed at them, and started to riffle through it "See that's the thing, we agreed that one of each these would be worth about fifty dollars, but he wasn't sure how much he actually wanted. So if he wanted two he'd have to pay me one hundred dollars, and seeing as how I have a new shipment coming in next week, I need to sell about half of this... So, I'll need."

He then started to silently do the math in his head "...Fifty thousand dollars, for half of this."

He then held up a bottle of pain medication. Mae could see out of the corner of her eye that Selmers looked nauseous when the bird showed them the pain meds, Angus was about to reach into his pocket to grab his wallet but Bea stopped him and she pulled out her credit card "Just, take it."

The bird stood up and haphazardly tossed the bottle back into the duffel bag "Nope not gonna cut it, I need physical money."

Angus then reached back into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, he opened it up and started to riffle through it trying to scrounge up as much money as he could. After a few seconds of him searching around Angus pulled out thirty dollars and twelve cents "This is all I have in physical money and change." the bird took Angus's money and after he tucked it inside of his hoodie pocket he pointed his gun at Bea "Now you." Bea backed away slightly "What? But-" the bird then cut her off "Like I said before I need fifty thousand dollars, and you're gonna fork up fifty thousand dollars or else." Bea stared at the handgun's barrel in fear "Can't we work something out? I- I run a store back in Possum Springs, I c- can like hook you up with some-"

"No you can't hook me up with something I live in Florida, I only come to Michigan when my little business needs me to."

Bea became more and more fearful as time went on "Yeah b- but, I could like mail you the money you need or-"

Before even hearing the "or" option the bird said "I'll take or.. As in or else."

He then walked over to Bea and started to forcefully pull out her wallet, Angus wanted desperately to stop either the bird from taking Bea's wallet or Bea from struggling against him "Can't we just, we could, why don't."

He didn't have a single idea on what to do about the situation. Bea grabbed the bird's free wrist which caused him to point his gun's barrel at Bea's chin "Let go."

Mae, fueled with rage, suddenly picked up a piece of rock debris that must've come of the tire of a car and bashed it against his knee, she then shoved him away from Bea and stood in between the two of them. The bird aimed his gun at Mae "You little-"

She then threw the rock at his head and it him in between his eyes right above his beak, the sudden attack and it's pain caused him to back away from Mae causing the distance in between the two of them to grow from a few inches to a couple feet, the bird looked back over to Mae his grip growing tighter on the gun as he aimed it at her "How stupid are you." Mae grinned slightly feeling confidence inside of herself "I could ask you the same question."

The bird glared at Mae angrily and spoke through his teeth "You asked for it." he then pulled the gun's trigger and all of Mae's confidence melted away. Everything around her seemed to slow down, all of the colors around her grew more vibrant, she felt numb all over as if she were having an out of body experience, the lantern started to flicker despite it being at full power just a few seconds ago, just as the lantern started to flicker all of the cars started to go haywire, their lights flickered, their horns honked, they kept on locking and unlocking themselves, everyone's phones started to flicker on and off, random notifications popped up on them causing their alert sounds to continuously go off, and all while all of that started to happen the parking garage's lights also started to flicker on and off, all of that happened while everything around Mae seemed to be in slow-motion so Mae had no clue how it looked or sounded for everyone else. As everything flickered and sounded off and the bullet that the bird fired at Mae flew towards her, everyone started to panic out of both fear for Mae and the confusion of what was happening around them, suddenly and with no explanation Mae, who was just standing there a blank expression on her face as a bullet flew towards her, suddenly blasted out some sort of shock wave that didn't knock anyone off their feet, it actually felt like a light breeze, but the shock wave caused the once speeding bullet to fall to the ground devoid of all momentum. The bird looked at Mae in complete fear, then another shock wave came from Mae and the gun's magazine suddenly fell out and landed on the ground.

Once it fell onto the ground the bullets inside of the magazine's clip started to pop like firecrackers, they didn't cause any harm to anyone but they did fill the parking garage with the smell of gun powder, then yet another shock wave came from Mae this time it caused the bird's handgun to completely fall apart and as that shock wave came from Mae the chaos of the various electrical devices that surrounded everyone in the parking garage started to grow stronger. The bird looked at the pieces of his gun that still sat in his hand, a look of true fear on his face, he then looked over to Mae who looked like she was on the verge of passing out from boredom, he slowly backed away from Mae "Wh- Wh- What are you!?"

He then turned around and ran from Mae, but she then let out another shock wave that caused the black duffel bag to zip itself shut and then it was flung at the bird by an invisible force, the bird was knocked off balance by the duffel bag so he scrambled to recover and pick up the bag so he could continue to run away, Mae's head followed the bird as he ran out of the parking garage and once he left the lights stopped flickering, the cars stopped locking and unlocking themselves, the phones all stopped alerting their owns of various things, and Mae collapsed. Bea caught Mae before she could hit the ground, Bea placed her hand on the side of Mae's head and made the cat look at her "Mae? Mae?! MAE?!"

Her eyes fluttered as they tried desperately to keep themselves open "BeaBea?"

Mae's eyes then closed and she passed out in Bea's arms. Mae then opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of a bus station, she was standing in the middle of Possum Springs's bus station, she was standing next to the mural that falsely portrayed the town. Mae looked over to her left and saw Gregg sitting on a bench, he was wearing the same clothes he usually wore a black leather jacket, grey undershirt, blue jeans, and a pair of navy colored boots, Mae walked over to Gregg and before she said or did anything he said "Despite the town's small size I have a lot of good memories here. Heh, kind wish you would've found me sooner, then I could've made some good memories in Bright Harbor."

Gregg then disappeared in a small puff of white steam. When Gregg disappeared instead of feeling sad she just felt... nothing, she then turned back around and saw an orange furred cat, wearing a black hoodie, dark blue jeans, and black sneakers, sitting on the bench that sat on the right side of the mural, that cat was also one of Mae's best friends Casey Arnold Hartley, she walked over to Casey and sat down next to him. Without looking over to Mae he said "How have you been?"

Mae shrugged "I've been better."

Casey slowly nodded as he stuck his hand into his hoodie's pocket "How so?"

Mae sighed "Well, Gregg went missing yesterday, we spent the entirety of today searching for him but we only found out that this guy named Steve Scriggins knows Bea, and his brother and parents live in Bright Harbor over their family restaurant. And while we were heading back to Angus's apartment I did something stupid."

He then pulled out his meth pipe as he put his other hand into his other hoodie pocket "You're gonna need to be more specific than that."

She grinned "You sound like Bea."

He then pulled his lighter out of his other hoodie pocket "How's that?"

Mae looked over to Casey "Well the both of you think I'm immature."

He nodded "Aren't you?"

She rolled her eyes "Yeah whatever... But back to what we were talking about before, the stupid thing I did was that I ran into a parking garage after a dumb sound perked my curiosity. Well the cause of that sound was a drug dealer or something and me being really bad at making choices I tried to confront them, then that drug dealer guy pulled a gun on us and long story short he tried to shoot me, then.."

Casey looked over to Mae "Then what?"

Mae continued "Then I passed out, so I don't know what happened afterwards."

He made a "Huh" noise as he started to light his meth pipe "Well, you don't seem to be dead.. And I'd know what being dead is like."

He was having some trouble lighting his meth pipe, each time he brought his lighter to up to the pipe it's little flame went out, Mae suddenly blurted out "Are you real?"

Casey looked over to Mae slightly confused "What do you mean?"

Mae shrugged "Well, I've had weirder dream-visions before so you just being a figment of my imagination wouldn't be that weird too me."

He then looked back over to his pipe and tried to light it again "Well, does it matter if I'm real or not?"

She shrugged again "I don't know, I guess not.. It'd just make me fell better if you were real, despite the fact that would mean I can talk to the dead."

He finally lit his pipe and a smile of satisfaction grew appeared on his face "But if I weren't real that'd mean I'm a figment of your imagination and or a combination of your memories trying to tell you something, and if I were a figment that'd mean that I'm like your imaginary friend and they can be cool, or if I'm a jumbled mess of your memories that means I'm full of your favorite and best memories about me."

Mae nodded "Yeah I guess so."

Casey then put the pipe in his mouth and took a drag off of it, or whatever you do it smoke a meth pipe, Mae doesn't know how to smoke anything let alone a meth pipe, once Casey let out a puff of smoke from his mouth he said "No matter what, don't let your bad memories taint your good memories, and of course never forget me, deal?"

Casey held his hand out for Mae to shake it, she then grabbed his hand and shook it "Got it."

He then disappeared in a puff of white vapor that smelled like smoke. Mae stood up from the bench and her grandfather walked past her, she then jogged over to him and walked next to him "It's been awhile granddad."

Her grandfather nodded "Sure has."

Mae didn't know what to say, not because she was overwhelmed with all sorts of confusing feeling due to her seeing her dead grandfather again, no, she just couldn't think of anything. Eventually Mae finally thought of something "How's grandma?"

Her grandfather shrugged "Same old, same old. She still wants me to fix that fan in the bathroom."

She looked over to her grandfather in slight confusion "You still live inside the house?"

Her grandfather shook his head "No not really, it's more of a memory. Nothing ever changes no matter what we do, which makes fixing that fan."

She chuckled slightly "I bet."

They then reached the bus station's front door and her grandfather placed his hand on it's handle "Welp, I'll be seeing you latter kitten."

Mae waved to her grandfather "Bye."

He then pushed open the door and walked out, he too disappeared in a puff of white vapor. Mae stared out the glass door, there wasn't anything outside of it except for a large slab of concrete that the bus station sat on top of, she then turned back around and everything changed, the bus station looked like it had been ravaged by a tornado, then a riot, then an earth quake, the mural of misrepresentation was demolished and the only thing left of it was it's wooden frame, the right bench was split in half, the front desk had a massive hole in it, the TV that sat above the front desk was smashed in, there were holes in the station's roof, and scattered all over the floor was pebbles and rocks of varying sizes. Standing in the middle of the bus station, in front of Mae, was a tall man who wore a large dark red cloak that had a hood which was flipped up and covered the top of his head, he was also wearing a pair of dark black work boots, the clocked man then turned his head and looked at Mae which showed her that he was also wearing gas mask that had a broken filtration device that made it look like he had a crocodile's muzzle. The man then turned completely around and faced Mae revealing that he didn't have a right arm or a right sleeve "You."

It was Eide, the cultist that tried to kill Mae last year in the mines, but Mae didn't feel scared or threatened, she felt the same way she felt when she first woke up in the bus station, she felt meh, Eide stomped over to Mae and stood a few inches away from her "You've caused me so much trouble.. Too much trouble."

He then grabbed Mae by her neck with his left hand, he lifted her up off the ground but she still felt nothing, he then walked over to the glass door and tossed her through it, right as she broke through the door she was flooded with fear, anger, sadness, and confusion. Tears welled up in her eyes as she fell into the endless black void that surrounded the bus station, she tried to scream out for help but she couldn't get any air into her lungs each time she opened her mouth, the only sounds that she could hear was the sound of wind rushing by her as she fell. She continued to fall the bus station slowly shrinking as she fell, it just kept shrinking and shrinking until it was gone leaving her alone in a pure black void, she kept on falling unable to do anything, afraid of what might happen to her, when suddenly she stopped in midair. She looked downwards and saw more endless void, she looked upwards and saw even more endless void, she was still surrounded by the black void yet she was just floating in place, then she heard a deep male voice say something behind her " **Borowski.** "

She then turned around and saw the **Black Goat** standing on air right behind her, a wicked grin on his face " **I see you've fallen into some troubling times. Any questions you may have as to what happened, I can gladly answer for you.** "

He then clapped his hands and the two of them disappeared.


	12. A Confused Train Ride

6:07 P.M. the River Shack complex, room twenty.

* * *

Bea burst into Angus's apartment, she was carrying an unconscious Mae in her arms in a baby/bride style, Angus ran past Bea and headed into his bathroom, Selmers and Lori both also ran past Bea and quickly folded back up the pullout sofa bed, Bea sat down onto the couch and repositioned Mae so that she was laying upright on Bea's lap. Angus ran out of the bathroom and over to Bea, he was holding a washcloth that was dampened with warm water, Angus placed the washcloth on top of Mae's forehead, he then stepped back from the couch and over to Selmers and Lori, Selmers looked over to Angus who stood on her left "What do we do?"

Angus thought for a moment and eventually said "...I- I don't know. I've never dealt with anything like this before, I mean I've taken care of Gregg when he's sick, but he doesn't pass out for who knows how long, he just gets loopy."

Lori wrapped her arms around herself and sighed "I guess we've done the only things we can do."

Angus nodded sadly "Yeah, I guess."

Bea rubbed the side of Mae's head "Mae come on, wake up.. Please."

She felt fear begin to build up in her gut, she knew that Mae would make it out of this fine, she'd wake up eventually and they'd go back to looking for Gregg, but she couldn't help herself, she kept on comparing this current event to an event in her past, when her mother was still alive. Before she was diagnosed with caner Bea's dad thought it was just a really bad cold or something, but one day when her mom was feeling better and had gone outside, she up and passed out, it took her a day and a half to wake back up and all the while Bea couldn't do anything, she just cried and cried. Bea looked down to the top of Mae's head, she watched the cat breathed for a few moments before she wrapped her arms around Mae's chest and pulled her into a one sided hug "I'll be here for you.. Always, no matter how self entitled you get, no matter how childish you become, no matter how far you run.. I'll always be here for you, I'll always be there for you."

That was something Bea's mother had said to her after waking a day and a half after she passed out in their front yard, it was hard for Bea to get that out, but she had to, it meant something to Bea and, even though Mae couldn't hear it, she wanted to share it with her.

* * *

Mae had her eyes closed for whatever reason, she couldn't remember why, she could tell that she was sitting down on a cushioned seat, there was a large hard slab of something resting against her back, it must've been the back of the cushioned seat's chair, despite knowing that she was sitting down she could swear that she felt like she was moving. Suddenly something in her mind made her feel like she just had to open her eyes for whatever reason, she then opened her eyes and saw exactly where she was, she was in a dinning car of a train, she was sitting in a both on the left side of the car, the cushion under here was colored green, the backboard of the booth was made out of polished oak wood, there was a dark green carpet running down the aisle of car that ran from the door at the back of the car to the one at the front. After Mae gathered her bearings by looking around the train car she then slumped into her seat and looked forwards, what she saw sitting on the other side of the booth in front of her made her sit back upright, sitting in front of her was the **Black Goat** he stared at Mae with his yellow eyes, they were fixated on her, when she saw the **Black Goat** sitting in front of her the entire empty train car was filled with the sounds of a busy train car, Mae looked back around the train car and saw that each booth was filled with white, glowing, people that emitted a white mist, they all interacted with one another as if everything was normal, just then a ball of white mist flew past the booth she was sitting in, it stopped next to the booth behind the **Black Goat** and turned into a waiter, the waiter looked like everyone else, glowing white and emitting a white mist.

Mae looked out he window on her left but she couldn't see anything outside of it, there was some kind of thick fog that had a purple tint to it that prevented her from seeing what ever was outside the train. She looked back over to the **Black Goat** who gave her a friendly smile, except it didn't feel friendly it felt both rehearsed and forced, it also made Mae very uncomfortable " **Hello miss Borowski.** "

Mae didn't want to look at him, each time she stared at him she'd feel sick, she'd feel alone, and helpless, if she dared to make eye contact with him she'd feel a burning sensation inside of her chest, she'd begin to tremble and feel like she'd just up and die at any moment, but something inside of her forced her to look at the **Black Goat** "What did you do? Why am I here?"

The **Black Goat** then gave Mae a genuine smile " **Well, what do you mean by what did I do?** "

Mae shivered when he gave her a genuine smile, but she answered "How did I end up in that weird bus station?"

The **Black Goat** chuckled " **That wasn't my doing, no, that was all you.. All I did was catch you before you fell further into you subconscious.** "

Mae furrowed her brow in confusion "Wh- What?"

The **Black Goat** sighed " **You see, after that little encounter in the parking garage you passed out, you drifted right into the darkest parts of your mind that I like to call Mental Purgatory. A part of your mind where memories that you've forgotten go to be deleted from your mind forever... But to answer your other question, the reason why you're here is because, like I said before, I want to answer all the questions you may have regarding your encounter.** "

Mae rubbed the sides of her head, she was even more confused now that the **Black Goat** was trying to elaborate, if that bus station was Mental Purgatory then why was Gregg there, why was Casey there, why was her granddad there, why was Eide there? She slammed her hands down on the table and glared at the **Black Goat** "If that bus station was a place were forgotten memories go then why was Gregg, Casey, and my own granddad there?"

The **Black Goat** shrugged " **Even though that is the place forgotten memories go, that doesn't mean that all of them are deleted, some are saved before they are destroyed, others aren't.. The people you talked to in that station were some select memories that your mind has forgotten, but they can be saved... Anyways, even though I love to explain the strange parts of a person's head those aren't the questions I want to answer righ-** "

Mae cut the **Black Goat** off "Then, what is this place?"

The **Black Goat** rolled his eyes " **This is another memory, one from the time you visited the Astral Realm, I have simply altered it.** "

Mae's head was starting to ache but she didn't know why "Altered? How?"

The **Black Goat** smiled " **Pick up that fork and throw it at me.** "

He pointed to a fork that sat in front of Mae, it wasn't there before, in fact the table she sat at was suddenly decorated with plates for both her and the **Black Goat** , as well as a cup and utensils for them to use in a meal, she then picked up the fork that the **Black Goat** pointed to she then threw it at his chest and it passed right through him "H- How?!"

The **Black Goat** grinned again " **Hahaha, you see. The way I have altered this memory is that I have placed a layer over it, that layer includes me and the other passengers on this train, we aren't here, but you can see and hear us.** "

Mae nodded not really understanding what the **Black Goat** "AAAGGGHHHH!"

The **Black Goat** looked at Mae, an eyebrow raised in curiosity " **Something wrong Borowski?** "

Mae was rubbing the front of her head in pain, she had a massive head ache, she didn't know why though, she nodded "Y- Yeah."

She tried her best to search through her mind trying to find out why she suddenly had such a painful headache "...Each time I.. I think your name my head hurts."

The **Black Goat** smiled " **Oh, I see. Well the reason why you keep on getting a headache each time you think my name is because, names hold a great amount of power, each time you think the name I want to be called your mind gives me a sliver of your mental willpower. A force that keeps your mental sanity in tact.** "

Mae took in what the **Black Goat** said, if what she said was true she'd have to give him a different name, one he wouldn't like to be called "Alright, how about I call you... Blacky instead?"

Blacky furrowed his brow " **Don't call me that.** "

Mae smiled as her headache began to dissipate "Too bad, that name doesn't make my head hurt."

Blacky grumbled to himself " **Stop calling me that.** "

Mae shook her head "Nope."

Blacky glared at Mae for several minutes in silence, after a while he eventually rolled his eyes and grumbled to himself more, he then clapped his hands and the door at the back of the train car opened up and a white ball of mist flew towards their table. It stopped next to the table and transformed into a waiter, the waiter looked over to Blacky "What can I get you two?"

Blacky suddenly held up a menu and began to order his meal " **I would like Haggis with a side of Mashed Potatoes.** "

Blacky then looked over to Mae " **Have you figured out what you want?** "

Mae was about to say something but she suddenly felt something in her hands, she held up both her hands and saw that she was holding a menu, she looked over the menu and finally ordered what she wanted "I- I want a plain Hot Dog."

The waiter wrote down what the two of them wanted before turning back into a ball of white mist and flying out of the train car. Mae looked back over to Blacky wanting to continue asking him questions but she just couldn't muster up the willpower to do it, she wasn't sure if it was her own confusion was preventing her, or if Blacky was forcing Mae to stop asking questions so she could give him a break or something, after several silent minutes of waiting and staring the waiter eventually returned to their table. He transformed from a ball of mist form and into his, regular? form, Blacky smiled at the waiter " **Thank you for your service.** "

The waiter then gave a bow to Blacky before disappearing, Mae was confused again, the waiter hadn't gave them their foo- Mae looked at the table, sitting on a plate in front of her was the plain Hot Dog she ordered, and Blacky's Haggis with a side of Mashed Potatoes also sat in front of him on a plate, Mae stared at the Hot Dog, she wasn't really hungry, and she wasn't sure if she could even touch it, but Blacky was already busy eating his meal of whatever Haggis is. Mae used her knife to poke the side of the Hot Dog's bun, the knife touched the bun so that meant she could touch it, Mae lifted the Hot Dog up to her nose and sniffed it, it smelt like a Hot Dog but did it taste like one, right as she hesitantly moved the Hot Dog in front of her mouth Blacky suddenly said " **He was a Chinese soldier, served in both the Second Sino-Japanese War as well as the Chinese Civil War.. Died by accidental decapitation.** "

Mae moved the Hot Dog away from her mouth "How do you get accidentally decapitated war?"

Blacky shrugged as he took a bite out of his Haggis " **You do it by getting yourself caught trying to defect to the other side of the war, and after your decapitation the side you were working for says it was accidental.** "

Mae sat there silently before finally taking a bite out of her Hot Dog, yeah it tasted like a Hot Dog, but it didn't taste like a good one, it tasted like one of those cheep knockoffs you buy at the very back of the meat aisle, Mae chocked down her bite of Hot Dog before placing it back down onto the plate in front of her. Blacky looked back over to Mae " **Like I was saying long before you started calling me _Blacky_ and before we ordered our food, I want to answer any questions you may have regarding that encounter in the parking garage.**"

Mae frowned, she was hoping Blacky had forgotten about that, because she couldn't remember whatever this encounter was, the only thing she remembered from the parking garage was that the black bird had shot at her, and then she.. passed.. out. "OH GOD! AM I DEAD!?"

Blacky sighed and shook his head " **No, in fact you should- You.. You don't remember it.. Do you?** "

Mae shook her head "No I don't remember _it_."

Blacky then clapped his hands again and the same Chinese-soldier-waiter-ghost-thing reappeared next to their table " **Could you get me friend and I a nice and** _ **REFRESHING**_ **glass of water?** "

The Chinese-soldier-waiter-ghost-thing nodded before disappearing, a second after the Chine- you know what, a second after the Ghost Waiter disappeared Blacky looked back over to Mae a smile on his face " **Well, drink up.** "

Mae wasn't all that surprised to suddenly find a glass of iced water in bother her right hand as well as Blacky's right hand, Blacky raised his cup up to his lips and began to sip from it, Mae also raised the cup up to her lips but before she took a sip from it she saw the water had a layer of thin white fog over it, the ice also had blue sparkles in it, she hesitantly took a small sip out of the glass as she drank her sip of water she coughed "Agh, that tastes like- like... It has a really bad tang to it and what's with the-"

She was then suddenly flooded with all the memories she was missing from the parking garage, she remembered the lights flickering, the phones constantly going off, but most importantly she remembered the bullet meant for her head suddenly getting hit by an invisible shock wave that had come from Mae's own body, she remembered the shock wave making the bullet suddenly drop to the ground, she remembered the gun falling apart and the bird running away from her in fear. She then suddenly returned to whatever strange reality she was in, she placed her hand on top of her forehead "What just happened?!"

Blacky smiled " **Good, it worked.** "

Mae removed her hand from her forehead and stared at Blacky "What do you mean, it worked?!"

Blacky's smile remained on his face " **I simply gave you the memories that you somehow forgot.. Now then, like I've said before, any questions you may have about that encounter and experience I will gladly answer.** "

Mae rubbed the sides of her head as she regained and organised her thoughts "Okay.. First, what was that shock wave thing?"

Blacky's smile went from one made out of joy, to one of satisfaction " **Those shock waves were... Well to put it as basically as I can, it was like, a wave that you make in a pool by splashing your hands in the water, except it was made by your mind, and the wave was made out of the waters of reality.** "

Mae raised furrowed her brow in complete confusion "What do you mean? Splashing in the pool, waters of reality?"

Blacky groaned and put his cup of water down " **Basically your mind is like a generator that powers a force field from a movie.** "

Mae nodded, the picture that Blacky was trying to paint becoming clearer "Okay... But why do I have it?"

Blacky smiled again and let out a sigh of relief " **The reason why you have it is because I put it in you. I put it in there so I could insure that you would be safe from life threatening situations, like a speeding truck, or a bullet from a gun.** "

Mae nodded "Okay but why?"

Blacky's expression soured " **Because, I have... Plans for you, in the future, I have plans and contingencies for not just you, but also all your friends and family no matter how loosely related you may be to that family member.** "

Mae didn't know how to feel about that. On the one hand whatever this weird thing in her head was it, from what she could tell, could save her from anything life threatening, but on the other hand Blacky had "plans" for her and her friends and family, she really didn't know what to say or think next so she just blurted out the first thing she could come up with "Can I control it?"

Blacky shrugged " **It is possible, although threw all my years in existence I have yet to find someone how is able to control what I have put inside of your head... Although you are a unique person Mae, you're strange, different... Fascinating even.** "

Mae defiantly didn't like to be called strange, different, and fascinating by a creature that had made the murder cult throw people in a hole so they could feed him "Before, didn't you need to like be fed by the cultist?"

Blacky nodded " **And I still do. But after you and your friends made the mine collapse on top of them, those that survived threw themselves into my hole in hopes of keeping me happy for how ever long they could, so for the next month or so I should be fine.** "

Mae nodded "Alright... What was with all of that weird stuff with the electricity back in the parking garage?"

Blacky clasped his hands together " **I actually don't entirely know... My best guess is that the amount of energy your body was taking in to fuel those shock waves was causing all sorts of havoc in your surroundings, it was just that the electrical based devices were the most vocal.. But the last time I gave someone that protective field was back in 1803 so it hasn't had much interaction with electricity.** "

Mae nodded "Why did I pass out?"

Blacky then picked up his glass of water and took a sip out of it before answering " **Like I said before your body was taking in massive amounts of energy from your surroundings, it overloaded your system slightly... But I must commend your friends on the actions they've taken in trying to wake you back up, warm water will replenish your mental energy.** "

Mae suddenly sat up placing her hands on the table next to her plate "Wait, you've been watching my friends?"

Blacky moved his head from side to side slightly which Mae knew was the universal sign for sort of " **I can't directly watch someone constantly, you know how people watch clouds?** "

Mae nodded " **It's like that, some spots I won't be able to see, like the clouds covering the blue sky, and others I can, like the uncovered parts of the sky, and some days I can't see anything, much like a cloudy day. While we waited for our food to get here I was able to glance at your friends.** "

Mae nodded again, she didn't know what to do now, all of the questions she could think of had been answered, even questions she just randomly asked were answered, and trying to make sense of the train she was in only made her head hurt. Blacky then suddenly clapped his hands " **Well it seems I have answered all of your questions, I will be seeing you again... Soon.. Until then miss Margret Borowski.** "

Mae then said "Wait what do you mean soo-"

Before she could finish she Blacky along with the entire train disappeared. Mae fell through the endless void yet again, but this time memories of various things flashed in front of her, she saw the first time she and Gregg went swimming together, she saw the last time she'd ever drink any kind of alcohol just to name a few, the memories weren't the only things that flashed in front of her, she'd also see various faced appear in front of her, they all went by too fast for her to make any of them out, she just kept on falling and falling, farther and farther, fear and dread started to build up inside of her, she felt alone, she felt betrayed, forgotten, unloved, lost, dead even. Mae then rolled in midair and faced downwards tears rolling down the sides of her head and flying upwards, but something filled Mae with a twinge of hope, there was a bright light getting closer and closer to her as she fell, as she got closer to it her hope disappeared and her fear was increased tenfold, she tried her best to get away from the light even though she knew she couldn't actually escape it, she then took one last look at the light before she made contact with it.

* * *

Bea was fast asleep on the couch, she was still sitting upright on it, and Mae was still sitting on her lap, a warm wash cloth that Angus had replaced a few minutes ago before he went to bed. Bea was woken up by the feeling of Mae starting to stir, she looked down at the top of Mae's head as the cat opened her eyes sleepily, Mae scanned the surroundings in front of her, she was in a room, a living room, it was night time, there wasn't any lights in inside of whatever building she was in, she was sitting on something, it felt both hard and soft at the same time, from her waist up she was moving up and down slightly. Then a bead of warm water rolled down the side of Mae's head, but Mae didn't know she had a wash cloth on her head so the first thing her mind did was panic and think " _AM I BLEEDING?!_ "

Bea could feel Mae begin to panic, she placed her hand on the side of Mae's head and began to rub it trying to comfort her "Shhh.. MaeDay you're fine. Nothing bad has happen to you, I promise."

Mae shakily raised her hand up to her forehead and started to touch it, she felt the warmth of a wet cloth like object, her body calmed down as she realized that she was indeed fine and that she was in Angus's apartment, Mae then also realized that the reason why she'd moving up and down slightly was because she was sitting on Bea's lap and laying against chest, Bea's breathing was making Mae move up and down. Mae took the wash cloth off her head and got off of Bea, she then sat down next to her crocodile friend, she groaned as she sat down "..Ugh, my back."

She started to get feeling back in her legs "Sorry for not being a soft bed."

Mae shook her head "No, no... It'm actually thankful for you taking care of me when I was out."

Bea smiled at Mae "You're welcome Mae."

Mae also smiled at Bea. She didn't want to push Mae for information, but there wasn't anything else for her to do "..Hey Mae?"

She looked over to Bea "Yeah?"

Bea took in a deep breath "What happened back there in the parking garage?"

Mae felt a knot form in her stomach when Bea asked her question, Mae also took a deep breath in and explained what happened, she tried her best to dance around mentioning Blacky, the mental-purgatory-bus-station, or Chinese soldier waiter. Once Mae finished explaining what had happened Bea stared at Mae for a few silent moments "...Well... That's weird."

Mae nodded, while she explained what had happened she started to feel weird, she felt kind sick... shit... she was GOING to be sick, Mae hopped off the couch and ran into Angus's bathroom. Bea ran after Mae, once she reached the bathroom Mae had already thrown up into the toilet and was about to do it again, Bea tried her best to comfort Mae as she continued to throw up into the toilet and once Mae finally stopped Bea went back to the couch and grabbed the wash cloth that once sat on Mae's forehead, she cleaned off Mae's mouth and the fur surrounding it before tossing the dirty cloth into the sink "What was that about?"

Mae, who was sitting on the edge of the tub, shrugged "I don't know... I just feel so cold."

Bea squatted down in front of Mae "Do you need me to get something?"

Mae thought about Bea's offer for a moment "Yeah, a cup of normal, un-iced water would be fantastic."

Bea nodded and walked out of the bathroom to get the water She had asked for.

A few moments after Bea left Mae felt like the room was getting colder, the hard tube underneath her and the air surrounding her all felt like they were getting colder and colder, she was shivering. Just then the door suddenly slammed itself shut, the lights that Bea had turned on when she chased after Mae started to flicker, the air in front of Mae started to heat up rapidly as if a fire was being set on the door right in front of her, and it almost seemed as if it was being set on fire, suddenly a large red circle appeared on the door, the circle emitted small trails of smoke and it also glowed a bright red, the circle then began to become more and more interact as a pattern started to take shape inside of the circle, after a minute or so the pattern and circle finally took shape. The circle wasn't really a circle, it was a pentagram, the pentagram continued to emit small streams of smoke and glow a bright red before suddenly changing to a blush purple color, the room was then filled with the smell of beer and cheep perfume, the pentagram then began to glow a bright white until it almost blinded Mae. When the bright white glow became to much for her eyes to handle and she closed them, she saw a hazy vision, a building, in a park, no a forest, the building was two stories high, it wasn't just a building, it was a house, an abandoned house, then the abandoned house's front door opened and a familiar voice rang through Mae's head "Borrrrrowski."

Mae then opened her eyes again and the pentagram vanished in a bright flash of red light and the door opened back up and the lights stopped flickering. Bea was standing on the other side of the door, her hand ready to twist the door's knob before it opened itself up, she walked into the bathroom holding Mae's cup of water, she handed it to the cat and looked around the room "Why does it smell like a college party in here? A college party that was set on fire?"

Mae sat there silently thinking to herself, was that a part of her mental field thing? Did she cause it or did Blacky? Mae stood up and took a drink from her glass, righ as she stood up everything clicked into place for her, she then looked over to Bea "Hey BeaBea, I left some stuff out when I explained what happened in the garage.. And I think I know where to look for Gregg next."

Bea looked at Mae a confused look on her face "What do you mean, left out?"

Mae then led Bea back into the living room and sat her down "It's best if you sit down for this."

Mae then took another drink from her glass before telling Bea about, Blacky, the train, and her mind field protection thing.


	13. Day Light Drive

September 15th, 2018, 8:26 P.M. Bright Harbor, the River Shack complex, room twenty.

* * *

Bea began to pull out the sofa bed as her mind tried to wrap itself around what Mae had just explained to her, Bea didn't entirely understand everything Mae had said but there were bits and pieces that her mind could slightly understand, she understood that those shock waves came from Mae, or at least her mind, the explanation for why Mae had that power still confused Bea. After she laid the pull out bed onto the ground Bea turned around to look at Mae, who was tiptoeing out of the guest bedroom where Selmers and Lori were sleeping, Mae had her suitcase with her as she crept out of the guest bedroom, once Mae was safely outside of the guest bedroom and back in the living room Bea finally said "Tell me again why you got your mind powers?"

Mae laid her suitcase down on the ground and crouched down to began to open it as she answered "Like I said before, Blacky put something in my head, he says he put it there to protect me."

Bea sighed "Okay, who's Blacky?"

Mae looked up from her suitcase and over to Bea "What do you mean?"

Bea stared at Mae blankly for a moment "...You never told me who Blacky is."

Mae was silent for a moment "He's the Black Goat."

There was a slight twinge of pain in Mae's head when she said Blacky's "real" name but it wasn't the same amount of pain from when she was on the train with him, Bea rubbed her forehead in frustration "Who the hell is the Black Goat?"

There was some kind of pain in the back of her head when she said the Black Goat, but that could've just been how stupid Mae was being right then. Mae grabbed a white tank top and a matching pair of white shorts before she answered Bea's question "Blacky, or the goat guy, is... Is, he's the creature in the mine. The one in the hole."

Bea couldn't really believe Mae, she just couldn't, the create in the hole had left them alone last year, but if it really was a God then why would a little collapsed mine stop it from interacting with them. The reason why she couldn't believe Mae was because Bea wasn't going to reevaluate her entire life and religious stance again "..Mae.. I'm sorry but I can't believe you. I just- I can't go through that again."

Mae stood up from her crouched position still looking at Bea "What do you mean?"

Bea sighed "What do I mean... The last time that.. Blacky, interacted with us we all almost died, and afterwards most of us, or at least I, had to take another look at our life and see if anything had changed due to that event."

Mae hopped up onto the pullout bed which didn't have any kind of sheets or covers on it, she was still holding her pajamas when she did jump onto it "No don't worry! Blacky only wants something from me, not anyone else!"

Bea sat down on the pullout bed and Mae sat next to her, the crocodile then said "How is that a good thing, or even something to not worry about?"

Mae was about to say something but she stopped herself from saying that one thing, she thought about what she should say next "...It- It isn't, I guess I just wanted to help you believe my words or something."

Bea smiled "Mae, I'll... Think about it, I'm just choosing to not believe you right now... Don't take that the wrong way."

Mae nodded "I won't and thank you Bea, you're always there for me, even if what I say is far-fetched or just stupid."

Bea nodded "Yeah you do say a lot of stupid stuff."

Mae looked at Bea a slightly shocked expression on her face "Hey!"

Bea chuckled and Mae joined in eventually. Bea walked out of the apartment's bathroom after changing into her pajamas, Mae had already changed before Bea so the crocodile took her time, while she was changing Bea inspected the burn marks of the pentagram that had appeared in front of Mae after she threw up, from what Mae had already told her Bea gathered that the pentagram showed Mae where to go looking for Gregg next and who to ask about Gregg next but that was all Mae had told Bea about her "vision". Bea walked into the living room holding her day clothes in her hands. Mae wasn't in the living room but the kitchen's lights were on so that must've been where Mae was, Bea walked into the kitchen after tossing her clothes into her opened suitcase, Mae was sitting at the kitchen table and she was looking at something, Bea walked over to Mae's side and looked at what the cat was looking at, Mae had her journal out and she was scribbling away in it. Bea suddenly said "What are you up to?"

Mae jumped in her seat and covered her journal "O- Oh, uh.. I'm just drawing what I saw in the pentagram."

Mae then took her arms off of the journal and let Bea see what she had drawn, on the left page there was a picture of the pentagram that was drawn to make it look like it was glowing, then on the right page there was a picture of an old abandoned house sitting on the side of a road, the house was surrounded on all sides by trees, all except for the front. The house all so had it's door open and Mae had drawn a little speak bubble next to the door that said "Borrrrowski." Bea stared at the pages before saying "Damn Mae, you're a good artist, or at least better then I am."

Mae looked over to Bea "Is that all?"

Bea then said "Oh and where in the hell is that house supposed to be?"

Mae shrugged "Somewhere in Bright Harbor, I think Angus might know where it is though."

Bea nodded "Then I guess we'll show him this after he wakes up, but let him eat some breakfast first alright?"

Mae nodded "Alright."

Mae then closed her journal and picked it up before standing up and out of her chair. As Bea fitted the pullout bed with sheets and covers Mae placed her journal in her suitcase, when Bea was able to finally get the pullout's bottom sheet on she looked over to Mae as the cat closed her suitcase "You put your journal in your suitcase?"

Once Mae completely closed her suitcase she said "Yeah, was to hyper to put it inside of my old backpack."

Bea picked up one of the covers and started to lay it on top of the pullout bed "To hyper?"

Mae nodded "Yeah, that day I drank a cup of super effing sweet coffee before packing up."

Bea didn't want to image a Mae hyped up by coffee, let alone coffee that was apparently "super effing sweet" after Bea finished making the pullout bed her and Mae climbed into said bed together. Bea laid down under the covers on the right side of the bed while Mae laid down on the other side of the pullout also under the covers. Bea was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling while Mae was on her left side silently staring at Bea, there was something different about being this close to Mae, ever since Bea took care of Mae while she was passed out a few minutes ago she felt different around Mae, it wasn't a major difference, and it wasn't a bad kind of different feeling, it was just different and Bea noticed it, and the only reason why she kept on focusing on that feeling was because she couldn't figure out why it started and how it happened. Mae then suddenly spoke up "Hey BeaBea?"

Bea didn't look over to Mae but she did respond "Yeah?"

Mae was silent for a moment "..Is it weird that I'm kinda scared?"

Bea was also silent for a moment "..Well, why are you scared?"

Mae took in a deep breath "The reason why I'm scared is because, Blacky keeps on saying he'll see me soon. And I don't know what he wants from me."

Bea then finally looked over to Mae "Mae, if you weren't afraid of what a God-Like creature wants from you I'd think you're crazy."

She became silent and Bea rolled back onto her back. After several silent minutes Mae suddenly snuggled up to Bea's side and the crocodile, without looking over to Mae, said "What are you doing?"

Mae was silent for a few more minutes before answering "...Bea I- I know I said that I'm scared... But I'm actually terrified, with Blacky trying to do something to me I- I could get all of you hurt, or- or killed, or..."

As Mae talked she slowly closed her eyes as she began to cry, so when her eyes closed she hadn't noticed Bea roll over onto her side and also snuggle up to Mae, Bea placed her hand on the side of Mae's head and began to rub it trying to comfort her feline friend "Mae, Mae, listen.. I can't tell you what'll happen, and I'm still not sure if I can believe that the creature is back, but no matter what happens, Blacky or no Blacky, I can guarantee you that we'll all be fine."

Mae buried her head into Bea's chest, her own crying slowly lulling herself to sleep, Bea continued to rub the side of Mae's head as she fell asleep. Bea silently thought to herself still snuggled up to Mae who was now asleep, this felt... good, it felt nice to be so close to Mae, it felt good to reassure her friend, it wasn't the first time she'd done this kind of thing and it had always felt good, but this time it was a different kind of good, one Bea had only experienced for a short period of time, and only once in her entire life. Bea then thought to herself " _D- Do I.. Do I have a crush on Mae?_ "

Bea actually didn't know what a crush felt like, the last time she had a "crush" on someone it was really only jealousy and not love, even to this day Bea would scold herself for having a crush born out of jealousy, especially when that jealousy came from just how close Mae was to Casey Hartley a person she'd only seen at Mae's birthday parties starting at seven and ending at twelve, Casey also just so happened to be the person she had a "crush" on when she was younger, when she found out that he had "disappeared" she felt guilty for having that fake crush, and that feeling was only magnified when she found out that the cultists had sacrificed Casey to the Black- Blacky. Bea started to slowly fall asleep and drift off into her dream land, as she did Bea tried to remember Casey's face, he was an orange cat, with green eyes, his face always looked relaxed and laid back as if he hadn't a care in the world, but she knew that Casey's face wasn't relaxed when he died, her mind tried to make her imagine Casey just a few moments before his death but she dismissed that thought and replaced it with a different thought " _Tomorrow I'm going to have to talk to Angus about my possible feelings on Mae, he's about the only one here who I know is good at keeping secrets, and being gay._ "

With that she finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

September 16th, 2018, 9:34 A.M. Room twenty's living room.

* * *

Angus, who was still in his pajamas, walked into the kitchen where Bea was fast at work making breakfast. Angus sat down at the kitchen table "Why does my bathroom door have burn marks on it?"

Bea looked over her shoulder and to Angus "Mae's mind made a pentagram last night and it burnt itself into the door."

Angus nodded "I'm just gonna pretend that I understood that and wait to wake up more so I can actually understand it."

She looked back over to the food she was cooking "Sounds like a plan."

Just then Lori and Selmers both walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table next to Angus. Mae could smell something, it was sweet, and familiar, Mae opened her sleepy eyes and sat up, Bea wasn't anywhere to be seen, she must be in the kitchen, Mae climbed out of the pullout bed and walked into the kitchen, right as she did Bea gave everyone their breakfast, which was cinnamon rolls. Mae happily sat down at the table and Bea gave her a plate of delicious cinnamony pastry, Mae quickly dug into her cinnamon roll while Bea sat down at the table, Angus, who had a cup of coffee with him, looked over to Mae "So, Bea tells me that you burned a pentagram into my bathroom door."

Mae swallowed a bite of cinnamon roll before saying "Yeah, I don't know how it happened or why it happened but, it showed me where to look for Gregg next."

Angus nodded "And where might that be?"

Mae tore a chunk off of her cinnamon roll before saying "I drew a picture of it in my journal, but can I finish breakfast before I show you it?"

Angus nodded "Yeah alright."

They then got back to eating their breakfast in delicious silence. Mae rummaged through her suitcase looking for her journal, she might've been the one who put it back in the suitcase but that doesn't mean she remembered where it was in the suitcase. Eventually she found the brown journal and she jogged into the kitchen, she walked over to Angus and at the same time she flipped through the journal's pages and eventually found the pages she recently scribbled in, Mae placed the journal in front of Angus "Here you go!"

Angus looked at the pages, his eyes first landed on the page with the pentagram drawing that looked like it was glowing. After a moment of looking at the pentagram he looked over to the other page with the abandoned house on it, he inspected the drawing for awhile before finally saying "I know where that is."

Mae smiled "I knew you would!"

Angus nodded "Yeah, it's on the other side of the lake, over by town hall. I actually work on that side of town so I see this house a lot when I drive over there."

Bea, who was getting herself a glass of water, said "You have your own car now?"

Angus stood up and picked up his empty plate as he did "Kinda, it's a rental."

Bea nodded as she filled up her glass and Mae picked her journal back up. An hour later and everyone was dressed and ready to go, Angus led the group around the back of the apartment into a large parking lot, well large was a generous description of its size, it was more like the size of a medium backyard, despite its size there were cars parked in every spot in the lot, Angus led them over to a white pickup truck and pulled a key chain out of his pocket, he then unlocked the car as they walked over to it. Bea looked over to Angus "You rented a pickup truck?"

Angus nodded "Yeah, kinda.. Its a gift from my brother, he wants me to buy it off of him but I don't have the money yet so he's letting me rent it from him."

Lori nodded "That's... Nice? Of him."

Angus opened up the passenger side door and said "Yeah, it's nicer then most things he's done for me, or giving to me.. The last birthday present he sent me was a rock painted pink. Although he is in the military so he probably doesn't have the chance to buy me many nice things."

Bea climbed into the passenger seat while Mae opened up the back seat door and her along with Selmers, and Lori climbed into he back seat. Once everyone sat down in the car and had there seat belts put on Angus said "We ready to go?"

Everyone answered Angus's question with either a nod or by saying "yes" He then started the car and slowly drove out of the parking lot. Mae stared out of the truck's window as it drove down the road heading for the other side of town, Mae blankly stared at the buildings as they whizzed by, all of them looked the same architecture wise, Bea suddenly rolled down her window slightly and lit a cigarette that sat in her mouth, after she took a drag off of it she blew the smoke out of the window and she repeated that process several times. After what seemed like forever the truck came to a stop in a parking lot, everyone got out of the truck and walked over to Angus, Bea looked around "This doesn't look like an abandoned house."

Angus nodded "No this is the parking lot of my workplace."

Mae looked at the building in front of them "You work at a library?"

Angus nodded again "Yes I work at a library."

Bea blew smoke out of her mouth "Well, how do we get to our abandoned house?"

Angus then led them out of the parking lot "It's this way."

He then led everyone down the sidewalk heading for the back of that side of town. They walked down the side walk for a long time, Bea went through the cigarette that she lit in the car and already had another one to go halfway during their walk, as they walked down the sidewalk the buildings started to look older and older, some were in disrepair and others looked fine, eventually they could see the tops of trees poke over the back of the buildings as the town got closer and closer to the woods. Angus came to a sudden stop "Here we are."

Mae looked at the house to her left, it looked just like the one see saw in her pentagram vision, except due to its age the house looked like it was black in color, but the front door was a very dark brown in color, Bea walked over to Mae's side "This the place?"

Mae nodded "Yeah, this is the place."

Bea took one last drag off of the cigarette before tossing it to the ground "Alright.. Let's head in."

Everyone walked towards the old house. The house made everyone fell uneasy, it looked like a stereotypical haunted, and or cursed, house from a movie or show, Mae cautiously walked up the steps leading to the elevated front porch, she looked over her shoulder and at her friends behind her, she was looking for something reassuring from one of them but they all looked as uneasy as she felt, Mae looked back at the front door and stepped closer to it, she the hesitated before suddenly deciding to knock on it. Everything was silent for a moment before the door slowly creaked open, Mae froze in place not sure what do as the door opened, once the door was opened slightly a voice came through it "Who's there?"

Mae trembled in fear "M- My n- name is M- Mae B- Borowski.. A- And these are m- my friends. B- Bea, Angus, L- Lori, and S- Selmers."

Everything became silent again before the door opened up completely, and standing in the doorway was brown furred, female, light blue eyed bear, with light blue dyed hair on her head, she wore a white tee shirt that had "SCUM" written on it in stylized letters that made it look like it was carved into wood with a knife, she also wore a blue scarf and dark blue pants, she also had stylish black boots. The bear also had black earrings on, a tattoo of a knife on her neck, and a piercing under her lower lip, Mae had met this bear before, at a party with Bea last year, Mae had even written about this bear in her journal, but she didn't know the bear's real name so she just gave her the nickname "Bombshell" the only person at that party that actually treated Mae nicely, Bombshell was also the only person in Mae's life that flirted with her, properly.


	14. Crocodile's Tears

September 16th, 2018, 10:35 A.M. The other side of Bright Harbor, Abandoned House.

* * *

Mae was shocked to see Bombshell standing in front of her in the doorway, although she shouldn't have, she heard Bombshell's voice in her pentagram vision say her last name. Mae tried her best to act casual by leaning against the house's patio railing, but she couldn't make herself look casual "B- Bombshell! I d- didn't expect to see you here!"

Bombshell grinned "And I can say the same for you Borowski... Also, what did you just call me?"

Mae was flooded with embarrassment very suddenly and her face turned bright red "U- Uh, B- Bombshell, I- it's a little ni- nickname I made up for you i- in my head."

Bombshell nodded "I like it, so who are your friends?"

Mae quickly spun around and introduced her friends to Bombshell, and Bombshell to her friends. Once that was done Mae turned back around to face Bombshell as she asked "So what are you doing here?

Mae was filled with all sorts of nervous energies and she could barely even keep a straight face on "Well... You see..."

Angus could tell that Mae was having a hard time staying serious so he finished for her "My boyfriend, and her friend, has gone missing.. We wanted to take a look around this house and see what we could find."

Bombshell nodded "Alright, even though I don't see the point of looking in here, but come on in and knock yourselves out."

Mae smiled "Thank you."

Everyone then entered the abandoned house, and Bombshell closed the door behind them. The inside of the house was covered in dust, and cobwebs, there was still furniture inside of it but they were covered in white sheets, the only source of light other then the sun's light that came through the windows were candles that were placed around randomly. The front door led into the house's living room which had a couch covered by a white sheet still inside of the room, Bombshell walked into the center of the room "Welcome to my hangout, feel free to take a look around where ever you want."

Lori spoke up "You don't live here?"

Bombshell shook her head "Nah, me and my friends just hang out here from time to time. But I do come here alone to do personal stuff."

Bea held an unlit cigarette in between her first two fingers trying to decide if she should smoke inside of the house or not "What kind of personal stuff?"

Bombshell shrugged "Whatever I want, but mostly fun stuff, like witchy stuff."

Bea looked over to Bombshell with a look of confusion on her face "Witchy stuff?"

She nodded "Yeah. Stuff like Ouija Boards, Tarot Cards, Crystal Balls... Satanic worshiping.

Bea's face went from a look of confusion to shock "Wait what?"

Bombshell chuckled "No, no. I don't worship Satan. I just mess around with Satanic like things, you know pentagrams and stuff like that."

Bea didn't know if that was better or not. After that little exchange everyone split up and took a look around the house, Mae stayed inside the living room with Bombshell. Mae didn't know what she should be looking for but she was looking about as hard as she could for whatever might help them find Gregg, Mae lifted the sheet that covered the couch up and looked underneath it, sitting on top of the couch was a wooden Ouija Board, Mae picked the board up and walked away from the couch, she then inspected the board the front of the board had the entire alphabet on it in the center of it, a "yes" on the top left, a "no" on the top right, underneath the alphabet there was a list of numbers that went "1234567890", then underneath the list of numbers there was "good bye". Mae then flipped the board over and looked at the back side, the backside of the board had a list or rules on it, but there were twenty rules on the back of the board so she didn't read it all, but what she did read was "1) Never insult the spirit. If you are rude or disrespectful, it can attract evil spirits." and "3) Never use the board if you are sick, drunk, depressed or mentally disabled. When you are in a weakened state, you are vulnerable to possession." that third rule meant that Mae could never use the board, she may not be depressed or mentally disabled, but she is always in a weakened state. Mae looked over to Bombshell "The third rule says no one should be drunk when they use this, but don't drunk teenagers only use this thing?"

Bombshell nodded "Yeah, I guess. But the rules also say don't use it alone, yet I'm the only one that uses that thing."

"Doesn't that mean you'll get possessed or something?"

Bombshell shrugged "Well ghosts aren't real so I don't see how that's possible."

Mae stood up and tossed the board back onto the couch "So you don't believe in ghosts yet you use a board that lets you talk to spirits?"

Bombshell nodded "It's a predicament isn't it?"

Mae shrugged "Yeah, I guess so."

She then walked over to the side of the couch and crouched down before looked behind it. Bea and Angus walked into what was probably once the house's kitchen but it now looked like it had survived some kind of fire or apocalyptic event, the once white tile that covered the floor and walls were now stained by dirt and dust making them look black or grey, the counters were empty, and there was a spot near the counters that was clearly meant for a fridge that was no longer there. Bea walked over to the ceiling cabinets that hung over the counters, much like Mae Bea didn't know what she was supposed to be looking for, Bea opened up one of the cabinets while Angus took a look inside of one of the counters that had a drawer in it, Bea still held an unlit cigarette in her left hand but when she went to open up the ceiling cabinets she put the cigarette down on the counter in front of her, as she looked through the dusty cabinet Bea said "Angus.. I've got a personal question for you."

Angus, who was only paying half of his attention to Bea while looking through the drawer, made a "Hm?" sound. Bea took in a deep breath and exhaled, her breath knocked up some dust as she exhaled before finally asking "..Before you met Gregg, or got in a relationship with him, did you consider yourself straight?"

Angus picked up a coin and inspected it "What do you mean?"

Bea closed the cabinet "Like, before you got in a relationship with Gregg did you even think about yourself as gay?"

Angus put the coin back inside of the drawer "Well, it's actually kind of complicated. You see, I kept on saying I was gay just to make my parents mad.. But I never really meant it, much like my current religious stance, I had never cared about sexuality just the facts.. That was until I met Gregg."

Bea stared at her cigarette as nervous energies began to fester inside of her body "Okay... But, that still means you never truly thought of yourself as gay until you met Gregg, but here you are now, Gregg's gay boyfriend. That means you thought twice about yourself and changed your mind."

Angus nodded as he continued to look through the drawer that was filled with mostly old pieces of paper from 1990-1998 "Yes, I did think twice about myself."

The thought of take a nice, long, and relaxing drag off of Bea's unlit cigarette began to grow more in her mind as she said "What- What was it like?"

Angus looked over to Bea finally "Before I answer that question, can I ask my own question?"

Bea nodded and Angus continued "What's caused this sudden curiosity on my past life?"

Bea took in a shaky sigh "Well, I've been thinking... Thinking that I might. Just. Have. A... A crush on Mae."

Angus suddenly took on a shocked look "O- Oh! Well in that case, we should.. Take a seat."

He looked around the empty kitchen seeing nowhere to sit down, when Bea suddenly hopped up onto the counter and sat down on it, Angus followed Bea's lead and also sat down on the counter before finally answering Bea's question "So.. When I met Gregg I, at first, didn't think twice about myself, but after a while of be with him as a friend I started to feel different, certain things and actions started to feel different to me. But it wasn't that major of a difference, so I didn't think twice about it, that was until I had to take care of Gregg after he got a bad stomach flu. During that time I started to grow a stronger and stronger bond with Gregg that eventually led to a relationship. And that was kind of it, although I might not have describe it all that well."

Bea finally caved into her desires and finally lit the cigarette that sat in her left hand, she put the lit cigarette in her mouth and took a long drag off of it before blowing the smoke out of her mouth. After a silent moment or two Bea looked over to Angus "So... Did you doubt your feelings at first?"

Angus nodded "Yes, I doubted myself for several weeks and months, but I eventually decided to do a scientific test."

Bea raised an eyebrow "Scientific test?"

Angus blushed slightly in embarrassment "Yes, you see I set up a friendly get together with Gregg that was secretly a date, I did it so I could once and for all figure out my feelings towards Gregg. And here I am."

Bea took another drag off of her cigarette "So you just went for it, no hesitation?"

As Bea talked smoke left her mouth, and Angus chuckled once she finished "Oh no, I hesitated for half a year, but I eventually decided that I might as well just go for it and see what happens."

Bea took another drag off of her cigarette and blew the smoke out of her mouth "I mean, good for you and all, but... I just can't do that."

Angus raised an eyebrow inquisitively "Why not?"

She was about to say something but she hesitated. Bea sat there silently trying to think of how to word her answer and Angus sat there silently waiting for her to respond, eventually Bea said "I just.. I'm afraid of how my dad'll react."

Angus nodded slowly "I understand where you're coming from, when my father found out about me being gay he burned all of the stuff in my room, luckily it was just mostly sheets and clothes that I could live without, but despite them being relatively meaningless objects. The message it sent terrified me."

Bea stared at her cigarette, there was only half of it left and she only had two more in her packet that was inside of her pocket, and right now she felt like she need more then two packets worth to make her calm down. Bea then asked "What was the message?"

Angus went silent for a moment before finally saying "...That I no longer mattered to him, sadly he was the only parent I could look up to at the time, mostly because he wasn't home most of my life. I wanted to be anywhere he was simply because it wasn't with my mother."

Bea took a final drag off of her cigarette and blew the smoke out of her mouth, she then preceded to take out her cigarette packet and put the cigarette butt inside of it. Angus sighed before saying "Why are you afraid of how your father'll react to your feelings? Or possible feelings?"

Bea felt a slight twinge inside of herself when Angus asked that question, she wasn't against talking about her personal stuff with Angus, hell, for awhile he was the should she'd cry on while Mae was off in college, but something about that specific question made her cringe inside of herself "...My dad.. He's not a bad guy, he has a good heart and soul... It's just after my mom's death they kinda.. Froze, they're still there, they could and can come back... But having a cold heart and soul, that can be scary, terrifying even though he's only hit me maliciously once in my entire life, and I was asking for it then."

Angus suddenly asked "What was it? W- What were you asking for?"

Bea sighed "I was just acting like a little shit, I refused to go to the Pickax, I kept on yelling at him, so he eventually snapped and hit me..."

Angus and Bea both sat there silently, Bea could feel sadness being to build up inside of her as she thought about that day, she doesn't hate him, she doesn't really even fear him, but something about her possibly coming out to him scared her. Angus suddenly spoke up again "I- I'm sorry, I'm sorry about making you think of that again, and for cutting you off."

Bea smiled, Angus, no matter what, always tried so hard to be polite in any situation "Thanks big guy... So, like I was saying before. I'm just scared of how my dad may react to all of this, he's not all that... Stable. Right now."

Angus tapped his first two fingers on his right hand against the counter he was sitting on "He may not be stable, but, what can he really do to you? You seem pretty convinced that he won't hurt you, but is there anything else he could do?"

Bea shrugged as she took another drag "I don't know.. I guess he could ground me, fire me from the Pickax, yell at me a lot... God he could kick me out of the apartment."

Angus sighed slightly trying to alleviate some anxiety from himself "Those do sound bad, but you can recover from them all. All groundings end at some point, you could find another job, and if you get kicked out of your apartment you can stay with Mae."

Bea tapped some ash off of her cigarette "Maybe, maybe.. I- I ju- just... Heh, hehe, hahah!" Bea then suddenly burst into a fit of laughter without even finishing her sentence. Angus looked at Bea as she laughed extremely confused "Bea?"

She calmed herself down enough to say "I'm- I'm making a b- big fuss over something I- I'm not even sure is a- actually a problem! I don't a- actually know if I'm g- gay or not! And I'm m- making such a b- big deal out of it!"

Angus frowned "Bea, this isn't a laughing matter."

She suddenly stopped laughing, she put her head in her hands and yelled out "I know! I'm a nervous wreck! I just- What if- Why can't- AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH GODDAMMIT!"

Bea removed her hands from her face. Her eyes were blood shot and she was crying, Bea then took a massive drag off of her cigarette, as she blew the smoke out of her mouth she coughed, and Angus quickly took the cigarette from her hand, Bea then burst into tears and put her head on Angus's shoulder "Why is this happening to me?! Why is this one stupid, little, fucking, thing having such a big impact on me?!"

Angus pulled Bea into a hug and rubbed the top of her head "Because this one thing is making you rethink everything in your life.. Something like this happened to me, except I would start to have panic attacks whenever I was alone with Gregg for a long time. Your mind, it's just, confused."

Bea curled up on the counter and snuggled into Angus's embrace "Wh- What do I do?"

Angus sighed "..Well, first you have to make a decision, then after you make your decision you're gonna have to wait for things to go back to normal."

Bea took in a shaky breath in between her sobs "H- How long will that take?"

Angus shrugged slightly "If you do decide that you have feelings for Mae, a month or two, but if you don't.. I guess maybe a week of recovery and another week of awkwardness around Mae."

Bea rubbed her eyes "Y- You guess?"

Angus nodded "Yeah, I've only dealt with on scenario, and I also guess that everyone goes through different things so you're recovery and adjustment time may take longer, or shorter then mine."

Bea didn't say anything and the only sounds that came from her was the soft and faint sounds of her crying which was slowly getting quieter as she calmed down more and more. A few minutes latter Bea finally said "Okay, alright, I think I'm good."

Angus then let Bea sit upright again, he then offered her the cigarette he'd taken from her earlier, she took the cigarette from him and put it back in her mouth, she took another much smaller drag off of it and blew the smoke out of her mouth. Angus looked over to Bea "So... How are you feeling now?"

Bea grinned slightly "I'm feeling better, much better."

Angus nodded slowly "Good, good.. And how are you feeling about Mae?"

Bea sighed "I'm still indifferent. I don't know when I'm gonna make a real decision, but for now, I have to focus on Gregg. We have to focus on Gregg."

Angus nodded and the two of them got off of the counter. Angus felt sore from sitting on the hard counter for so long, but Bea felt just fine having dealt with sitting alone in several basements throughout her life, Angus took a look around the empty kitchen "...What are we supposed to be looking for again?"

Bea shrugged as she finished off her cigarette "I don't have the faintest idea, but we better start looking for it fast."

Angus nodded and the two of them got to work looking for who knows what.


	15. The Pentagram

Lori and Selmers walked through the back of the house, just like everyone else in this house they had no clue what they were looking for. Lori poked her head through and open doorway and saw that the room that the doorway led to was an empty bedroom, well, empty as in there was only the frame of a bed and a dresser in the room and nothing else, Lori headed into the empty bedroom and Selmers followed the mouse into the room, over in the middle of the left wall there was a door that more than likely led to a closet. As Lori began to inspect the room Selmers leaned against the empty door frame "Got any idea what we're supposed to be looking for?"

Lori shrugged as she looked under the bed frame "Anything strange or out of the ordinary."

Selmers rolled her eyes "This whole place is strange and out of the ordinary."

Lori nodded "Yeah, but like, something strange and out of the ordinary that might've belonged to Gregg."

Selmers also nodded "I guess you're right."

She then walked into the room and began to also search around the room. As Selmers searched around the room she couldn't help but glance over to the door in the room, she didn't really know why she kept on looking at it but she did, over, and over again, eventually Selmers decided to check out the door, as Selmers walked over to the door Lori, who was inspected a drawer in the dresser, looked over to Selmers "What you up to?"

She continued to walked towards the door as she answered "I, am checking out this door. And seeing what's behind it."

Lori closed the drawer she was looking at and followed Selmers "There's just a closet behind it."

Selmers stopped in front of the door "Yeah, but we don't know what's inside of the closet."

Lori nodded "I guess you're right."

Selmers then tried to open the door but the door nob wouldn't move. She attempted to turn the nob again but to no avail, Lori took a quick look around the room and saw that there was a rock underneath the dresser, Lori quickly ran over to the dresser, grabbed the rock, and ran back to Selmers's side. Selmers looked over to Lori and the rock "We sure about this?"

Lori also stared at the rock in her hand "I- I don't know.. Maybe there's a key somewhere around here?"

Selmers shook her head "No, there's no way there's a key in here. Or anywhere. Besides, I've already put a eff ton of finger prints on this thing."

She pointed to the nob "So, if this is illegal we're already in trouble."

Lori hesitantly handed the rock to Selmers "I- I guess you're r- right."

Selmers held the rock in her right hand and stared at it "...Well, here goes nothing."

She then hit the rock on the door nob, but nothing happened, a second latter Selmers hit the nob with the rock again, and again nothing happened, she then did that a few more times and each time nothing happened again, and again, and again, and, again. Selmers tightened her grip on the rock in anger before hitting it one last time on the top of the door nob, just then the nob came off and fell to the ground, Selmers grew a big smile on her face as a sense of pride filled her, she then looked over to Lori as she dropped the rock "No let's see what's back there."

She then pushed the door open and, instead of seeing a closet, they saw a stairway that down into an unlit basement, the two hesitantly walked down the stairway entering the pitch black basement, as they stepped off of the last step Lori tripped over something. Selmers looked over to the spot where she heard Lori fall down "What happened? You okay?"

Lori groaned as she stepped up "Yeah, I'm fine."

She then felt around the darkness trying to find what she tripped over, eventually she found what she tripped over, it felt cold, and glassy, she then picked up the thing and began to fell around it, after awhile she found something that felt like a plastic button. Lori pressed the button and suddenly the thing she tripped over emitted a bright light, now that their surrounding area was lit up by the thing Lori tripped over, which was actually a lantern, the two of them could see that there was tons of boxes placed all around the basement, but the boxes weren't all over the place, no, they were lined against the walls of the basement and there weren't any in the center or the back of the room. Lori and Selmers walked deeper into the room reaching the center of it, Lori raised the lantern up into the air over her head and she saw that on the wall in front of them was a massive pentagram drawn on the wall in red paint, the pentagram stretched from the bottom of the wall to the top of it, Lori and Selmers both looked at each other before Selmers yelled up the stairs "HEY GUYS! THERE IS SOMETHING DOWN HERE THAT NEITHER OF US UNDERSTAND! YOU SHOULD.. COME CHECK IT OUT!"

After a few moments of silence Lori and Selmers heard two people walk down the steps leading down into the basement. Bea and Angus both walked off of the final step of the stairs and could immediately see that massive pentagram painted on the wall, Bea's mouth gaped in surprised "Holy, wow, that's..."

Angus finished for her "Scary, and satanic."

Bea nodded "Yeah."

Just then Mae hopped down half the flight of stairs and also saw that massive pentagram "That's... So... COOL!"

Bea looked over her shoulder and looked at Mae "Really?"

Mae shrugged as she walked off of the steps "Bea, we live in a small town in road kill Michigan, seeing a large offensive drawing on a wall IS awesome when compared to anything in Possum Springs."

Bombshell, who was behind Mae, nodded "Yeah, I've been to Possum Springs once.. I agree with Maeday."

Bea and Mae both said in unison "How'd you figure out my nickname?"

Except Bea didn't say "my nickname" she said "Mae's nickname" Bombshell shrugged "Just sounded cool in my head."

Bea nodded "Okay." Angus then spoke up "We should look around here."

Selmers nodded "Yeah."

Lori then placed the lantern down on the ground next to her and everyone got to work looking around the basement. But Mae didn't look away from the pentagram, she kept on staring at it, she even slowly started to walk towards it, it was almost as if something inside of her mind told her to get closer to it " _Wait. That's a pentagram.. And Blacky's like.. The devil or something, is he influencing me?_ "

Mae shook her head " _No, no.. That pentagram is just... Weird, something feels off about it._ "

Mae continued to walk towards the pentagram slowly. Bea picked up a small cardboard box and opened it up, what was inside of the box was just an old Christmas ornament, she then closed the box and saw out of the corner of her eye that Mae was acting weird. Bea looked over to Mae "Hey, you okay Mae?"

Mae nodded "Y- Yeah, I'm fine.. Just looking."

Bea put the cardboard box down "Yeah, looking at an effing pentagram."

Mae waved her hand dismissing Bea "No it's fine. I'm fine."

Bea sighed and walked over to Mae "No you're not fine. Come on, I'll help you look around."

Bea placed her hand on Mae's shoulder but the cat shrugged her hand off and Mae continued to walk towards the pentagram picking up her pace, Bea followed Mae "Hey, Maeday. Come one."

She didn't pay any attention to Bea, she just kept on walking and she finally stood a few inches away from the wall that had the massive pentagram on it, she then put her hand on the wall and everything began to shake. The room, walls, ceiling/upstairs floor, and everything inside of the basement began to shake, then the red pentagram began to glow bright red and several red hands came from out of the wall, they all grabbed onto Mae and pulled her into the pentagram. Mae floated through a light blue void, despite its color the void was dark and Mae could only see a few inches in front of her, just then another pentagram materialized in front of her, the pentagram glowed a bright white as it began to show Mae something, what she saw in the pentagram was what looked to be the inside of a mall, the wall had white tiled floor and walls, and there was some kind of jewelry store in front of her, just then a grey cat ran past the image in the pentagram, then Mae ran past the pentagram which was acting more like a TV screen at the time. The pentagram's image followed Mae as she ran after the grey cat, the Mae watching the other Mae chase some other cat heard Bea yell "Mae! Slow down!"

But Bea wasn't anywhere near the Mae watching herself, so that must've come from the pentagram and that Bea was probably yelling at the Mae in the pentagram. The grey cat quickly turned a corner in and Mae chased after him, Mae wasn't getting any closer to the grey cat, the Mae in the pentagram then began to say to herself "Concentrate, focus, concentrate, focus... And, release!"

Just then the pentagram suddenly glowed a blinding white light as the sound of something that sounded like a small explosion came from the pentagram. Mae was shaking, no, she was being shaken, she could feel someone's hands on her shoulders, Mae then opened her eyes and saw Bea's face staring at her a concerned look on it. Bea saw Mae's eyes open and she brought her hands up to the cat's cheeks "Mae? You alright? What happened?"

Mae nodded "Yeah I'm fine.. And.. Well."

She glanced over to Bombshell and Bea quickly picked up on what Mae was trying to get at, Bea stood up from her crouched position and began to led Mae up the stairs, as she did Bea said "Me and Mae are gonna go talk.. Alone.. Real quick."

She then took Mae out of the basement and the two of them walked over to the kitchen. Bea turned around and faced Mae "Alright, what the eff happened to you. One second you put your hand on the wall, and the next you pass out and I have to catch you.. Again!"

Mae nodded "Yeah, I know, I've been passing out a lot recently.. But what happened was that, I had some kind of, vision, or something. I saw me running through a mall chasing after a grey cat, but before I could find out how that chase ended I woke back up."

Bea sighed as she dug a cigarette out of her pocket/packet that was in her pocket "Mae... This.. Real scares me, you've passed out twice recently, and that Black Goa- Blacky guy has contacted you again. This scares me."

Mae looked down at the floor "Yeah, I'm scared too. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, or what he wants with me. I just don't understand."

Bea took a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it before putting it in her mouth "Mae... We'll figure this out. Trust me."

Mae looked up to Bea and smiled "Thanks BeaBea.. Now.. Should we get back to everyone else? We just kinda, walked out on them."

Bea nodded as she took a drag off her cigarette "Yeah, let's go."

Mae and Bea then both walked back into the basement together. Lori was talking to Bombshell, while Angus and Selmers were busy continuing their search of the basement, Bombshell looked over to the stairs as Mae and Bea came down them "Hey, what was that back there?"

Mae shrugged "Head's all kind of messed up. And I haven't eaten as much as I normally do these past few days."

Bombshell grinned slightly "Yeah, okay. Bea, what happened?"

Bea didn't remember telling Bombshell her name, but she just guessed that Mae told Bombshell about Bea. As Bea came off of the stairs she answered "Well, do you have any planes today?"

Bombshell shrugged "Don't know, how long should this simple explanations take?"

Angus suddenly spoke up from the left side of the room "That's the thing, it's not simple."

Bea nodded "Yeah just, keep an open mind. And know that I don't make up stories like this."

Bombshell raised an eyebrow in confusion "Okay? Let's hear it."

Bea sighed "Here we go."

She then went on to tell Bombshell about last year's events, although she left out the parts about the cult and focused more on Mae's strange dreams and experiences with Blacky. After a few minutes Bea finally finished and Bombshell tried her best to sort all of that information out in her head, meanwhile Angus found something strange, it was a black tee shirt that had the Sign of the Horns on it, underneath the image was a string of fire and words that said "Hell to the yeah!" Angus stood up and held the shirt up "Does anyone know what this is?"

Lori nodded "Yeah, it's a shirt."

Bea rolled her eyes "Looks like something a teen would wear."

Angus nodded "Smells like one too." Bombshell looked at the shirt "I've never seen that before."

Angus folded up the shirt and put it on top of a box. Selmers looked over to Bombshell "You've never seen that shirt? Not even on one of your friends?"

Bombshell shook her head "No not once... But there was this one time that one of my friends said he saw some strange looking people leaving this place one night, after that we never came here at night."

Bea blew some smoke out of her mouth "Huh, so that shirt seems to belong to a teen, and one night there's a bunch of strange looking guys leaving this very place."

Mae grinned and said "Coincidence? I think not."

Bea tapped the back of Mae's head "Shut up."

Mae rolled her eyes and began to string everything together, so. A shirt that looks and smells like it belongs, or belonged, to a teen is found in the basement, then Bombshell tells everyone that some weird guys left this house one day, or night, so... this shirt and those guys must be connected, but what about that pentagram vision? is that connected to all this? Maybe, maybe, but even if it isn't that mall would probably be a good place to look after this house, Mae clapped her hands together "Alright, so, Bombshell. I think we're done here."

Bombshell looked over to Mae "Really? You've only been here for.. Two hours or so."

Mae nodded "Yeah, well.. That shirt has actually given us a pretty nice lead."

Bea nodded "Mae's right, that shirt is the closest, and only, kind of evidence we can find here."

Bombshell shrugged "Yeah, this place doesn't have that much going on inside of it."

Angus and Selmers both walked over to Bea and Mae before everyone headed out of the basement and to the front door. As everyone left the abandoned-ish house Bombshell stopped Mae in the living room, Mae turned around and faced Bombshell and the bear said "It was nice to see you again."

Mae nodded "Yeah, it was."

She felt slightly flustered being alone with Bombshell again, the bear smiled "When do you think we can see each other again?"

Mae's heart skipped a beat, Bombshell wanted to see her again, like probably one a date "Oh uh. I- well I don't know let me just-"

No, she can't. Mae couldn't really get into a relationship right now, and it wasn't that she didn't want to, she straight up couldn't, why? well, an effing God is breathing down her neck at all times recently, Gregg's still missing, Mae is secretly terrified of all of that, and now she has some strange thing in her head that can make lights flicker, guns fall apart, and pentagrams appear in front of her "..Actually.. I can't. It's not that I don't want to, I just don't have any time."

Bombshell frowned "Oh, yeah... Well, when you do have some free time, we can see each other then right?"

Mae shrugged "My life's never stable, but, if that does happen then yes."

Bombshell smiled "Cool."

She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a little strip of paper "Here's my number."

Mae took the piece of paper and stared at it "You have your phone number pre-written?"

Bombshell nodded "Saves time... And listen, that number isn't just for dates or whatever, it can also be used to talk with me like a friend."

Mae didn't entirely understand what Bombshell just said but she did understand that it was nice and friendly "Okay, got it."

Mae then turned around and walked out of the house. As she stepped onto the porch of the house Bombshell said from inside of the house "Also! My name's Amanda Charles!"

Mae looked over her shoulder grinning "Got it!"

She then ran over to her friends, who were waiting by Angus's car, Bea tossed the but of her cigarette to the ground "Let's go."

Angus nodded and everyone got into the car, once everyone was buckled and the car was started Angus said "Where to next?"

Mae sat there thinking for a moment "...There's a mall around here right?"

Angus nodded "Then that's where we're going next."

Angus then drove the car away from the house heading towards the same parking garage that Mae first passed out at, that parking garage also belonged to the only mall in town, which was their real destination. After Angus parked the car in the garage and everyone made their way to the front doors of the mall Lori looked over to Mae "What are we looking for again?"

Mae shrugged "I don't know."

Then Angus suddenly spoke up "But I do, there's a couple of stores in here that Gregg always visits whenever we come here. So that's where we're going."

Bea then said "Why don't we just check out the places Gregg likes first? Why do we always go to random places?"

Mae answered instead of Angus "Cuz most of the time those random places we went to I saw in visions."

Bea said "Or you ran into recklessly."

Under her breath and Mae didn't notice it, Angus looked to his left then to his right "We should probably go inside and stop standing here.. We're drawing attention to ourselves."

Selmers nodded "Yeah, let's."

Everyone then entered the shopping mall and Angus lead them to one of the stores, which also just so happened to be the biggest store in the mall, the name of that store was "Gothic Paradise" the Paradise part of its name was made out of fire possibly trying to symbolize hell's fires or something. Bea didn't know why Gregg would like a place like this, that store seemed like somewhere she'd like not Gregg, at least she thought that till she saw that all the way at the back of the store there was a bunch of war stuff, guns, helmets, and even some bullet proof vests. Bea then said "We split'n up Mae?"

Right as she looked to where Mae used to stand she saw that the cat was already gone, Bea sighed "Alright let's go."

Everyone then went into the store and restarted the search for Gregg or something he owns, or Gregg's captor, or something the captor owns, they actually didn't know what they were looking for at all but they sure as hell were gonna find it no matter what.


	16. A Grey Cat CAN Mean Bad Luck

Mae walked through an aisle of the Gothic store, to her left was a bunch of shirts with various designs and to her right there was a bunch of tight leather jeans, the jeans all looked the same to Mae but according to the tags that stuck out from the jeans each of them were from different companies and from different brands from said companies, Mae's destination? Very back of the story, that's where strange and possibly illegal stuff happens, Mae continued to walk through the store heading for the back of it when someone passed by her in the aisle, it was the grey cat from her pentagram vision, Mae stopped dead in her tracks as the cat passed by her, once he was ahead of her Mae tried her best to both follow him and act casual at the same time, which was difficult for her to do, luckily the grey cat didn't seem to notice her at all. Eventually the cat and Mae came to the very back of the store, he turned to his right and walked towards a door situated in the corner of the store, as he placed his hand on the door's handle he suddenly looked over his shoulder to check behind himself, Mae quickly jumped out of the grey cat's sight and hid behind a cardboard cutout of some popular vampire character that the store had on sale, Mae heard the sound of the door open and close as the cat walked through it, Mae stepped out from behind the cardboard cutout and walked over to the door, there was a sign nailed to the wall next to the door that read "EMPLOYEES ONLY" but Mae didn't pay any attention to the sign, she stood on the tip of her toes and looked through a window in the door.

The door led to what seemed to be a storage room filled with several large shelves of boxes and crates, but what caught Mae's attention first was that the grey cat was standing just barely out of Mae's sight and that he was talking to someone. Mae stood flat footed again before carefully and silently pushing the door open, she stared through the crack in between the door and its frame and saw that the grey cat was talking to a crocodile, it was the same crocodile from the parking garage, his name was... was... Eli! Suddenly the grey cat turned around and looked over to the door, luckily Mae was able to get away from the door before the grey cat saw her, she heard the sound of someone walking towards the door "Mae, what are you doing?"

Mae suddenly spun around and faced Bea, she was about to say something else before Mae quickly put her hands over Bea's snout and pulled her into a nearby changing booth. Mae and Bea both stood silently inside of the booth, Mae heard the door open and a few seconds latter it closed again, at the same time the door closed Bea ripped Mae's hands off of her snout "Okay.. What the eff?!"

Mae poked her head out of the booth and looked over to the door "Someone, someone went in there."

Bea rolled her eyes "Yeah, that doesn't explain why you covered my mouth and pulled me into here."

Bea found it ever so slightly hard to talk to Mae's backside, she tried her best to avert her eyes but Bea kept on glancing over to Mae's bu- "Bea, the person that went in there wasn't an employee, he was the grey cat from my pentagram vision."

Mae then reentered the booth and Bea said "Are you sure it's the same cat?"

Mae nodded "Yeah, same colored fur, same green shirt, same brown pants, same white sneakers."

Bea furrowed her brow "You never told me about his clothes before."

Mae shrugged "Thought it wasn't important."

Bea sighed "...Listen. Let's not just chase aft-"

Just then Mae heard the door open and close again, she immediately poked her head out of the booth again and saw the grey cat walk past her. Mae jumped out of the booth and faced the cat, who hadn't noticed her yet, "HEY! GET BACK HERE!"

The cat looked over his shoulder in confusion at the same time Mae ran towards him and Bea stepped out of the booth a concerned and confused look on her face. As Mae ran towards the grey cat he too ran, Mae chased the cat out of the store and Bea also ran after Mae, as Bea ran out of the store she passed by Lori who said "H- Hey! What's going on?"

Bea didn't have time to stop and explain, hell, she didn't have time to say anything, so she just waved her hand telling Lori to come with her, Lori also ran after Mae along with Bea and as they both left the store Selmers and Angus joined them. The grey cat ran through the mall's food court, he ran in between people's tables and so did Mae, people stared in confusion as everyone ran through the food court although once Angus passed by them their confusion changed to mild concern, he wasn't ready to run yet, he had to sit down, Angus plopped himself down on the ground and took out his inhaler while everyone else chased after Mae, who was still chasing after the grey cat. The cat went around a fountain but Mae didn't have time to run past a fountain, so she jumped onto the fountain's side then jumped to the other side, sadly that side was slick from water and she slipped, Mae landed on the ground but she quickly recovered and got back up, Bea and everyone else didn't jump from one side of the fountain to the other, they went around it like the grey cat. Mae stared to recognize the scenery of the mall, she passed by the same jewelry store that she saw in her vision Bea yelled out the same thing she heard in her vision "Mae! Slow down!"

And the cat took the same turn that he did in her vision, Mae still didn't know why her vision self told herself to concentrate and release but she started to recite what she heard in her vision " _Concentrate,_ "

Her head started to feel fuzzy, " _Focus,_ "

That fuzzy feeling began to sharpen and it almost felt like there was a sharp pain in the front of her head, " _Concentrate,_ "

The sharp feeling began to grow stronger " _Focus,_ "

The lights around her began to flicker " _...And release!_ "

Right as she told herself to release the sharp pain grew in magnitude before it leaped out of her mind and suddenly became a bolt of energy, it was like those shock waves from the garage except more concentrated, the blast kicked the grey cat's right leg out from underneath him and he fell to the ground. Mae stood over the cat out of breath and the lights stopped flickering as she stood over him "O- Okay.. Why were you talking to E- Eli? A- And why did I s- see you in my vision?"

The grey cat groaned and said to himself "I'm so gonna get kicked out for this."

Before he said to Mae "Eli's apart of a group of mine, he also works at that store... And.. And."

Mae clenched her fists "Tell me. Now."

The grey cat sighed "Okay, alright.. Listen just, I can't tell you why you saw me in your v- vision. But. Just... Ugh, tell your friend Andy or whatever his name is 343 Turtlemore Street."

Mae raised an eyebrow in complete confusion "Wha- Why?"

The grey cat stood up "I can't tell you, you'll- you'll find out once you go there, just let me go."

Mae was about to say something when Bea suddenly called out "Mae goddammit get back here!"

She turned around to face Bea and the rest of the group "What? I'm fine!"

Just then Mae heard the grey cat run away from her and she turned around just in time to see him run past a corner, Mae sighed and turned back around to face Bea. Bea crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at Mae "Why don't you ever listen to me?"

Mae shook her head "No I listen to you... I just don't always do anything with what you say to me."

Bea sighed as Mae realized that Angus wasn't with the group "Hey, where's Angus?"

Selmers pointed towards the food court which was behind the group "He had to sit down back there, he should be fine right about now."

Lori, who had her hands on her knees attempting to regain her breath, said "C- Could we s- stop by th- there to get something t- to drink?"

Bea nodded "Alright."

Mae just then realized that either Bea hadn't noticed Mae's sudden ability to semi-control her mind thing, or Bea just didn't care anymore. As the group walked back towards the food court the chase began to sink into Mae's mind, the realization that she somehow was able to gain a partial ability to control her mind-power-protection-thing sank into her head, she felt... proud, holy shit! Mae felt proud about herself, and a little tired, but not pass out worthy tired. Once the group reached the food court Angus walked over to them, inhaler still in his left hand "Did you catch whatever it was we were chasing after?"

Mae shook her head "Nah, the grey cat guy escaped me... But before he ran off he said to tell you, 343 Turtlemore Street."

Angus looked rather shocked to hear that address "That's.. That's the address of the place that I work at, it's a library called Turtlemore Library. Both the street and the library were named after Albert Turtlemore founder of this town."

Bea sighed "That's the place we're going to next isn't it?"

Mae nodded "Yeah probably."

And Bea put her head into her right hand "...Fine, let's just.. Go."

Angus pulled out his phone and turned it on "...It's going to be closed by the time we get there, they always close early today."

Lori, suddenly very interested in this conversation, said "Why's that?"

Angus turned off his phone and put it back in his pocket "Today's the day of Turtlemore's death so most local businesses close down early.. Except for Gregg's workplace."

Lori nodded and Bea said "Well then we can wait for tomorrow to go check that place out."

Mae shook her head "No."

Angus looked over to Mae "No?"

Mae nodded "No. We're not gonna wait for tomorrow we're gonna break into that library and find what that grey cat wanted us to find."

Angus then said "Mae I WORK there! I can't break in!"

Mae shrugged "Then don't. You can wait outside in the car."

Bea then said "Dose that street have traffic cams on them?"

Angus nodded "Yes, yes they do. No matter what I'M gonna get tracked by either traffic cameras or security cameras in the library."

Mae suddenly said "Your library has security cameras?"

Angus nodded again "The library also houses some of the town's most important documents."

Mae went "Huh." as Selmers said "Sadly, it seems that no matter what we do Mae's mind is dead set on breaking in."

Bea sighed "Yeah... Let's just... Effing go."

Mae smiled "Yes!"

Then everyone, except for Mae, reluctantly walked out of the mall and to the car. It was about midday, the lake glistened brightly from the sun's rays, and people went about their merry day, but Mae and her friends weren't merry, well Mae was, but everyone else wasn't. Mae tried to push up one of the library's windows but nothing was happening, eventually she let go of the window "Agh! It won't budge!"

Angus, who was sitting in his car with the window rolled down, said "Yeah, they don't move."

Mae looked over to Angus "Why didn't you tell me!?"

Angus then said "Because it was pay back."

Mae rolled her eyes as she turned to face her other friends who stood over to her right "Find anything that might help?"

Selmers held up a strip of metal "Before Angus said that the windows don't move I was gonna suggest we slip this under them and us it to lift the window."

Bea was empty handed "I am currently refusing to help you break in."

And Lori held up a brick "Found this behind a dumpster."

Mae smiled at Lori as she took the brick "Thank you Lori! This'll be a hundred times easier and funner to do this now!"

Mae stood in front of the window, she stared at it for a moment before tossing the brick at the window, the brick slammed against the window and it bounced off only causing some minor cracks to form in the glass. Mae looked over to Angus in complete shock and surprise "What kind of windows are these!?"

Angus shrugged "I don't know its exact name, but I do know that it's pretty strong. They were installed after some really angsty teens started to cause riots in town. And I just want to clarify, my boss calls them angsty, I call them misguided."

Mae cracked her knuckles before picking the brick back up, she turned back around to face the window, took in a deep breath, and threw the brick again. The brick burst through the glass and hit the wooden floor in front of the window, Mae smiled widely and climbed through the hole in the glass, Bea then followed Mae, and so did Selmers. As Selmers walked over to the hole she looked over to Lori and said "You coming?"

Lori shook her head as she sat down "No I don't want to break in to there."

She then silently said "Empty libraries scare me."

Selmers nodded before climbing through the hole in the glass, Mae faced Bea and said "I thought that you weren't helping me break in."

Bea crossed her arms "I said that I wasn't helping you break in.. You broke in by yourself, I just followed you."

Mae grinned slightly as she rolled her eyes and Selmers, after climbing through the hole, brushed off her clothes getting small bits of glass off of them, Selmers then walked over to Mae and Bea "What we looking for?"

Mae took a quick look around the library "Just.. Find something."

She then walked away from them and Bea said "That's helpful."

But Mae didn't hear her. As everyone looked through shelf after shelf of books a door behind the help/register desk caught Mae's attention, Mae walked over to the desk and jumped up onto it, she then jumped off of the desk and walked over to the door, it was slightly ajar and it let a sliver of light escape the room that the door led to, Mae peeked through the crack in the door and what she saw left her speechless "Goddammit James!"

The grey cat, who's name turned out to be James, was slammed against a wall inside of what looked to be an office, James then yelled out "W- Wait! I- I never t- told her wh- what to l- look for!"

The person that slammed James against the wall, which Mae couldn't see due to her position, then said "That doesn't matter! She has no care for what is legal or not! For all we know she may be-"

Just then some other voice somewhere in the room said "Sir he's awake!"

Then a cabinet burst open and Gregg tied up in ropes, and wearing only his grey shirt, pants, and shoes fell out of the cabinet as he fell Gregg yelled out "Let me- AHH!"

Once he hit the ground he continued "Ow, uh. Let me go!"

The person that slammed James against the wall walked over to Gregg and stood in between him and Mae's line of sight. And what left her speechless, was the person that slammed James against the wall and was now standing over Gregg wore a long red hooded cloak, a pair of dark black work boots, and a gas mask that had a broken filtration device that made it look like he had a crocodile's muzzle, it was Eide, he was still alive, he still didn't have a right arm "Shut up."

He then bent down and lifted Gregg up with his left arm, Mae wanted to get a better look at what Eide was about to do to Gregg but in trying to do so she accidentally moved the door causing it to creek as it did. Eide suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Mae, he had teleported! Eide then wrapped his left arm around Mae's neck and yelled out "Get the others!"

Then a bunch of teen to young adult men, and some women, wearing black masks that covered their faces ran out of the office and towards Bea and Selmers, the black masked young-teen-adults dragged Bea and Selmers over to Eide and Mae, one of the masked men asked "What do we do now? What do we do with James, and them?"

Eide glared at Bea and Selmers "James has failed us, we kill him.. As for THEM, we're going to-"

Mae started to resist Eide's grasp, she twist and turned but Eide kept his arm around Mae's throat, he even started to apply pressure to Mae's neck as she yelled out "Let me go! Let us go! Leave me alone!"

Her head started to ache as she screamed, Eide then yelled at Mae "Shut up! Stop struggling!"

Mae didn't listen, she continued to struggle and resist, she had to get out of there, she had to get away from him, she couldn't let it happen again, she couldn't let them see it, she- she- she-

Over to Mae's left, there were shapes, they looked like cheep imitations of people, but they had a black featureless face, she looked down to her neck and saw that one of the shapes had her, she looked up and saw a mound of red and black shapes looming over her had its "arm" wrapped around her neck, they had her, they surrounded her, she was going to die, they were going to kill her " _Fight back, they won't take me without a fight, Margaret Borowski doesn't go down. Without. An. Effing. Fight!_ "

Mae bit down on the mound's arm and she heard a distorted cry come from it, but it didn't let go, over to her left she could hear various distorted screams, the mound started to squeeze Mae's neck. She couldn't fight back, she was powerless, but she had to do something, anything, she didn't care what but she had to do something, just then one of the cheep replicas of someone with a black face stepped in front of Mae, she stared at it in terror as it reached out to grab her, just then, her vision went fuzzy, she felt weightless, her whole body felt fuzzy and almost numb, then she could barely see the shapes suddenly disappear and she dropped to the ground, Mae then dissolved into shapes and she was taken away to some realm beyond her understanding. When Mae bit down on Eide's arm he yelled out "FUCKING- GRAB HER SOMEONE!"

Then one of the black masked teens stepped in front of Mae, and reached out to grab her head, but suddenly a shock wave came from Mae, it blasted the teen into the wall behind him, another shock wave came from Mae and this time Eide was blasted back, he tumbled over the desk behind him and fell onto the floor. Once Eide let go of Mae she started to float up into the air and she hovered over the ground slightly, she had her eyes partially closed as if she were fighting against the urge to fall asleep, another shock wave came from Mae and it blasted the other black masked people in the room away from Bea and Selmers, then Mae's eyes opened up, she screamed out in what seemed to be pain, and a final, extremely powerful, shock wave came from Mae. That shock wave shattered all the glass in the library and its windows, it made the shelves shack and tremble, some even fell over, then Mae fell motionless, luckily Mae was able to grab Mae before she hit the ground, Bea lifted Mae's head up "Mae! Mae! Mae please!"

Selmers then ran over to Bea and placed her hand on Bea's shoulder "Bea we gotta go!"

As she said that the black masked teens and young adults started to stir and groan in pain. Bea stood up holding Mae in her arms as she did, then her and Selmers ran out of the library, Angus, who had just gotten out of the car to see what had just happened, said "What happened?"

Bea then yelled out "Just get in the car!"

Angus quickly got back into the car and turned it on, Bea and Selmers along with Lori climbed into the car, Selmers and Lori had made room for Mae in the back seat but Bea wouldn't let go of Mae, she held onto the cat as she sat down in the passenger side of the car and Angus backed out of the ally he had parked in just in time for him to see Eide glare at them from inside of the library near the front desk, Angus also saw some black masked teen drag Gregg out of Angus's boss's office and towards Eide, Angus quickly drove away from the library and as he did he was asking Bea various urgent sounding questions, but right now, Bea didn't care, the only thing she cared about right now was Mae, who was lying motionless on Bea's lap, Mae was barely even breathing and her heartbeat was faint, the only thing Bea could think about right now was " _I can't loose you too._ "

As Angus drove back to his apartment he still lobbed what must've been very important questions to Bea, which she still wasn't listening to.


	17. The Sky-Cat

Febtembruary 134th, 1102017, 85:746 W.H. Possum Harbor, Apartment Mill.

* * *

Mae was running through a dense forest, the trees stretched high up into the air and blocked the surround skyline so that there was only a strip of the night sky over Mae's head as she ran, the moon loomed over head but it wasn't natural, it glowed blue and was much bigger then she'd remembered it. Mae didn't care where she was running to, she didn't know what she was running from, all she knew was that if she didn't stop something bad would happen, or at least she felt like something bad would happen if she stopped, she felt panicked and terrified, her palms were sweaty, she felt weak from running and the only thing keeping her going was the adrenaline in her body. Eventually she saw a building begin to come over the edge of the horizon, it looked to be made out of wood and it seemed to have a red and rusty metal roof, as she saw the building get closer to her she started to feel safe and her mind silently told herself that the building would be a safe place to stop, she kept on running towards the building and it started to seem familiar to her, it reminded her of the old sawmill in Possum Springs, the same sawmill that gave the local, now closed, park called "Sawmill Park" but the last time she'd seen that sawmill it had collapsed from its own age, Mae eventually reached the entrance of the sawmill and she shoved open the doors and quickly ran in, once she was safely inside Mae slammed the door's shut behind her before turning around to face the interior of the sawmill.

Mae didn't really know what the inside of a sawmill was supposed to look like, even though she had once before gotten herself stuck inside of the sawmill it wasn't in any of the saw-y areas, it was in the manager's office, or foremen's office, which ever one is the correct term. But despite her clear lack of understanding what the interior should look like she knew that it shouldn't look like this, there weren't any structures inside of the building, everything looked like it had been gutted, there was pieces of wood scattered all around the floor of the hallowed interior of the building, and there were various bits of scrap metal also scattered around the floor, not only that but there was a massive pile of both wood and metal sitting in the middle of the room, the pile was half the height of the building and it loomed over Mae like a giant, or another building entirely. Wind suddenly howled through the broken windows and into the building, Mae's shirt and fur ruffled in the wind as it blew threw the building, suddenly a piece of metal was torn off of the roof revealing a large hole in the roof, Mae still didn't know where she is so if she somehow was able to climb up through that hole she might be able to get her bearings or something, Mae ran over to the massive pile of scrap wood and metal that sat directly under the hole in the roof, she almost too effortlessly climbed up the pile and she stood on the very top of the pile just a few inches away from the hole. She jumped up to try and grab the edge of the hole but it was just barely out of her reach, she continued to repeat this process for a few moments and every so often when she landed the pile would shudder but nothing else happened, eventually Mae crouched down and leaped up into the air, she grabbed the edge of the hole "HA! YES!" but suddenly her weight and the sudden drop of momentum caused the edge she grabbed onto to brake off from the roof.

Mae landed on her back on top of the pile, it shuddered again, but unlike the last few times it had shuddered this time the debris began to roll down the sides of the pile and so did Mae. She rolled across the floor for an inch or two before standing up again, she watched as the pile started to fall apart, and something emerged from the pile, it was long, furry, and black in color Mae ducked as the black thing suddenly swiped at her head, then a low groan came from the pile and something else emerged from it, Mae stood up and looked at the pile as a massive black cat shook the remaining bits of wood from its long and shaggy fur, the cat looked like it wasn't actually there, it looked like a shadow that somehow also looked solid, the cat then opened its eyes which glowed a bright cyan color, that cat, it was the Not-God from Mae's dreams! No, that sounds dumb, she's gotta come up with a better name for it... Sky Cat! The Sky Cat fixated its glowing eyes on Mae "What were you doing on my back?"

As the Sky Cat asked that question Mae began to feel panicked again, she felt sweaty, and nervous, as if she could sense some sort of impending doom, which she kinda did, the last time she talked to that thing it showed her these horrifying creatures that looked like giant terrifying fleas. Mae finally, and hesitantly, answered "I- I was trying to g- get u- up onto the r- roof."

The Sky Cat laid there for a moment, an almost defining silence entered the building as it just sat there "...And what are you doing here?"

Mae shrugged "I d- don't know... The l- last thing I re- remember is... E- Eide."

The Sky Cat went silent again "...Who's Eide?"

Mae swallowed her fear and answered "He's a... G- Guy who works for, or w- worships, Blacky."

The Sky Cat nodded slowly "..What do you want?"

Mae furrowed her brow in confusion "W- What?"

The Sky Cat's tail swayed back and forth rhythmically "I can only assume that you came here to get more answers from me."

The Sky Cat's left ear twitched slightly as Mae said "I... Guess that, I can get some answers from you."

The Cat sighed "Fine, what EXACTLY do you want answered?"

Mae thought about what to ask next for quite awhile, maybe too long.

* * *

September 16th, 2018, 7:24 P.M. Angus's Apartment.

* * *

"Bea, Bea.. Beatrice!"

Bea looked up to Angus, she was in the guest bedroom, she was sitting on the bed, and sitting on her lap was an unconscious Mae. Bea stammered out "W- What?"

Angus then handed her a glass of fresh water "Either for you, or Mae when she wakes up."

Bea took the glass "Thank you."

Angus nodded and smiled before walking out of the room and into the living room, Bea could hear Selmers ask Angus something, he gave her an answer, then Lori asked him a question, she could've payed attention to what they were talking about, but right now the only thing she cared about was Mae, Bea watched as Mae's head, which was resting against Bea's chest, was pushed slightly up and down by her breathing, Bea watched Mae barely breath, her chest only moved slightly, and it scared Bea. The last time she saw someone's chest move that little was the night before her mother was rushed to the hospital, where she died, Bea squeezed Mae slightly as she pulled the cat into a hug, her mind then suddenly began to come up with worst case scenarios for Mae, and Bea shoot each and every one of them down, Mae was going to wake up, and she was gonna tell them why Eide and those other guy's were in the library, she just had too, and when Mae does wake back up, Bea's gonna be there for her, she's gonna laugh and cry next to Mae, she's gonna help Mae through what ever tries to mess with her " _O- Oh god.. I really do LOVE Mae.. How do I- Should I tell- No, right now, I have to help Mae. So I can't worry about my feelings until all of this is over._ "

Bea nodded "I'll be here for you Mae, I'll be your anchor to the real world. Like I always have been."

She then kissed the top of Mae's head "I promise."

* * *

Janoberuly, 999th, 872017, 102:394 A.T. New Springs D.C.

* * *

"What is this place?"

The Sky Cat blinked slowly "This world has no name, although you creatures call it the Astral Realm."

Mae nodded "Okay... And why do I keep coming here?"

The Sky Cat then said "You are cursed to continuously repeat the same tasks, and to return to the same locations, over and over again in your normal life.. Why do you care that you return to here from time to time?"

Mae shrugged "Because this place is weird to me, and my world is normal to me. That's why."

The Sky Cat sighed "The Black Goat has given you the power, or curse, to return here. How that is triggered, or why it is triggered, is unknown to even me. The trigger for it seems to be random."

Mae nodded. Those questions was a nice starting point, but she's gotta get to the bottom of things "How did I get here?"

The Sky Cat's eyes seemed to pierce through Mae's body, they were unchanging, and he barely even blinked "Why you are here, I do not know."

Mae silently said "That's not what I asked."

As the Sky Cat continued "But I do know how you got here... As you may know, the Black Goat installed a defensive mechanism within your soul, the purpose of that mechanism is to prevent possible death or to quickly disable your ability to... Properly operate, I believe that the Goat activated the mechanism to quickly dispose of who ever was threatening you, and to render you unconscious so that nothing else could possibly happen. Of course that is only a guess, it is also possible that you just over panicked and brought all of this upon yourself."

Mae honestly believed that the second option was indeed the true option, she probably did over react/panic and causing her to end up here. The Sky Cat then said "Is that all of your questions?"

Mae shrugged "Kinda, maybe."

The Sky Cat then put its head down on its front paws before saying "That is not an answer... But I accept it, your questions have been answered, and you are no longer needed here."

Mae raised an eyebrow in confusion "What?.. Not needed here?"

The Sky Cat nodded, its head still resting on the top of its paws "...It means get lost."

Suddenly everything started to get dark, the Sky Cat closed its eyes and practically disappeared into the growing darkness, Mae could hear strange clicking sounds, the sounds came from over her head, Mae looked up and saw two giant, hideous, flees the same flees that terrified her awake the last time she met the Sky Cat, Mae recoiled backwards, she tripped over herself and fell onto the ground, the hideous flees got closer to her, Mae's heart was pounding in fear as they kept getting closer and closer to her, eventually she was actually face to face with one of them and that did it, Mae screamed at the top of her lungs, her screams echoed through the endless void that surrounded her, no one could hear her, no one could see her, she was alone, surrounded by ancient beasts and gods that wanted something from, or nothing to do with, her she was stuck in a foreign land of unknown horrors and rules, she didn't belong, not there, not anywhere, no one could save her, and as one of the flees reached out to touch her she heard a low, and ominous, growl begin to come from all around her, it shook her body, and the flees scurried away from her as a massive, pure black hand reached out from the equally as black void behind her and bent down to scoop her up, as it got closer to her she curled up into a ball, and finally the massive fingers closed down around her scooping her up into its hand.

* * *

September 18th, 2018, 11:31 P.M. Bright Harbor, Angus's Apartment, the living room.

* * *

"It's been two days."

Bea nodded "I know, this isn't like her. She just doesn't pass out for this long."

Selmers and Bea both took one last look at the still unconscious Mae before Selmers closed the door to the guest bedroom and faced Bea "Now you need to explain to me, WHY she passed out, you need to explain to me what those pulse things are. Now."

Bea was about to say something when suddenly Angus and Lori walked through the front door of the apartment, Angus was holding in both his hands plastic bags filled with food, and Lori was holding a tray of drinks. Bea walked over to the other two "Are they?"

Angus nodded "Yeah, they're still out there, just.. Stalking us."

Since Mae passed out in the library Eide and his new cultist had stalked them all over town, to the point that only two to one of them could go outside at a time, although they never saw Eide outside only his formerly black masked associates, Angus walked into the kitchen and everyone else followed him in, Angus unpacked the fast food from their plastic bags and containers, everyone then sat down at the table and began to eat. Angus sighed as he took a bite out of his take out "This is all to familiar."

Bea nodded "And it feels to familiar as well."

Selmers then slammed her cup down on the table "Okay enough! What are you two talking about!? I know why you haven't told me and Lori why this is familiar, you're trying not to scare us or something. But now no one is safe right now so we don't have anything to lose anymore, just tell us!"

Bea sighed "Okay, just.. Keep an open mind."

She and Angus then told them about what happened last year, about the cult, and especially about Mae's coma and Eide. Lori leaned back into her chair "Wow... Just.. Wow, you guys went through all of that?"

Angus nodded "That's not really a good thing."

Selmers nodded "I would hope so."

Bea was about to say something when every one saw the light closest to the apartment's front door begin to flicker, a second or two after the light finished flickering everyone heard two loud foot steps out side of the door, Angus stood up and walked over to the door, and everyone else followed him towards the door. As Angus reached for the door's knob a hand suddenly phased through the wall, grabbed Angus's shirt's collar and used that grip to smash Angus's head against the wall in front of him, the collision left a dent where Angus's forehead was. The hand then let go of Angus letting him drop to the floor in pain, the arm then retreated back into the wall and as Lori and Selmers went down to help Angus the light closest to the door began to flicker again, Bea swung the door open but nobody was there, she then heard the sound of the guest bedroom door open, Bea turned around to see Mae standing in the doorway "What happened?"

Bea was about to say something when the light in the guestroom began to flicker, suddenly Eide appeared behind Mae, he then put his left hand over Mae's mouth, he looked over to the rest of the friend group "Marvin.. Wood."

He, along with Mae, suddenly the light flickered again and the two of them disappeared, Bea ran into the guestroom "MAE!?"

Angus groaned as he stood up and rubbed his forehead "Did he say.. Marvin Wood?"

Selmers nodded "Yeah, w- what does that mean?"

Angus continued to rub his forehead as he thought about that strange sentence for a moment "...That's.. That's the name of the old and abandoned mall at the edge of town."

Bea turned around "That's where he took Mae, that's the place they're set up... Then that's the place I'm storming into to get my fucking friend back."

She then started to walk out of the apartment as she said "And if you want to help, you better follow me."

Everyone followed Bea. As they rode the elevator down to the apartment's lobby Lori said "We can't just storm into there unarmed.. We need something to defend ourselves."

Bea nodded as she tried to think of some way they'd get a weapon or something that could protect them in that mall, just then she had an idea, a horrible idea, but an idea none the less "Hey Angus, this town's got cell service right?"

Angus nodded "Yeah, why?"

She then dug her phone out of her pant pocket "Because, I know someone who can get us what we need."

As the elevator came to a stop and everyone walked out of the metal box Lori asked "Who is it?"

Bea sighed as she dialed the unknown person's number into her phone "...Steve Scriggins."

She then brought the phone up to her ear and waited for Steve to pick up, which was almost immediate "BeaBea! And to what do I owe this pleasure?"

As Bea left the apartment she clenched the fist that didn't have her phone in it "Just shut up and listen."

She could hear Steve chuckle "This oughta be good."

Bea then had everyone stop in front of the apartment "We need some... Weapons, and I know for a fact someone like you has that kind of stuff."

She heard Steve sigh over the phone "BeaBea listen."

Bea grumbled "Stop calling me BeaBea."

But Steve didn't listen and he continued talking "I just went through this whole.. _Thing_ with my brother and I'm pretty tired."

He could tell that Bea wouldn't budge "What's in it for me, and why do you need them."

Bea grinned slightly realizing that she was making progress "..Just.. Bring them to the ally on the right side of the River Shack complex and I'll explain everything."

She could hear Steve begin to stand up "Alright, but only if you do two things for me. First, is that I want you too listen to MY ordeal, you know the thing that has me effing exhausted right now. And second, is that I want you to permanently re-add me to your contacts list. Don't care which list it is, so long as I can contact you at any time."

Bea growled into her phone "FINE."

She could practically FEEL Steve's cocky and egotistical grin through the phone "Alright, I'll be there in an hour."

He then hung up on her. Bea put her phone away and began to walk towards the ally she was gonna met Steve in "Come on." everyone else then followed the still vary pissed off crocodile to the ally so they could wait for Steve to arrive.


	18. Captives

September 18th, 11:39 P.M. Marvin Wood Mall.

* * *

Mae was thrown onto the cold and dirty tiles of some room, the room was barely even lit, and it smelled like her room after a week of not leaving it. She picked herself up off of the ground and onto her hands and knees, she looked over her right shoulder and saw Eide close and lock a set of double doors that led into the room they were in, he then reached up and pulled down a metal mall security gate causing the only source of light in the room to be covered up. Mae could hear that Eide walked over to something and picked it up, suddenly Eide turned on the lamp he had picked up, the light from the lamp shocked Mae at first but she was able to get adjust to it very quickly, Eide then put the lamp down on a wooden chair and walked over to Mae, who quickly stood up to try and seem more confident and at all afraid, which she was, Eide stopped in front of Mae his left fist permanently clenched "Get comfortable, we're not going anywhere for awhile."

Mae puffed out her chest to try and seem confident "Why's that?"

Eide didn't seem fazed, he never seemed fazed, even with the mask on that prevented anyone from seeing his eyes, he always seemed unfazed, bored, and angry all at the same time. Eide shook his head "Why should I answer you?"

Mae's puffed out chest returned to normal as her confidence wavered "B- Because-"

Eide stood up "Because for all of your life you've gotten what you wanted, even though you might tell your self that you don't, you still do."

Mae shook her head "No. If I always get what I want then none of this would've ever happened!"

Eide scoffed "You don't get it do you? When some one says 'you get everything you want' they don't mean EVERYTHING, they mean physical things! Like food, toys, clothes, shoes, or something like effing love! So you always ask stupid questions and expect answers! That's not gonna slid this time."

He then stormed over to a power outlet and plugged a cord into it. Suddenly two large spot lights turned on and illuminated the back of the room Mae was in, this allowed her to find out that she was in some kind of abandoned store, and tied to a chair that was resting against the back wall was Gregg. Mae ran over to her friend at the same time Eide vanished in thin air like always, Gregg had his eyes closed to try and prevent himself from being blinded by the spot lights, Mae stood on the left side of the chair Gregg was tied to and the fox opened his eyes slightly wincing as he did "Mae! What are you doing here?"

Mae looked back over to the metal security gate before answering "I'm trapped in here, with you."

Gregg chuckled "That's what they think."

He then started to struggle attempting to wiggle out of the ropes, but Mae stopped him when she saw that there was a large red mark on his left arm "Whoa, where did that come from?"

Gregg sighed "I've been tied up for... A long time."

Mae inspected his arm again, this time she saw that there was several red marks on it, there were red marks all over his body, all except for his face "Gregg! Have you been-"

She was cut off by the sound of Gregg beginning to cry "..Mae.. I'm scared.. Like really, really scared.. I'm hungry.. And thirsty.. I miss Angus.. I missed you.. I'm so... Scared."

Mae then wrapped her arms around Gregg pulling him into as good of a hug as she could manage with their current situation "I know, I'm scared too.. Just for different reasons, and I know that Bea is gonna burst into this place and fight with the fury of a thousand armies."

Gregg rested his head on top of Mae's "Bea came with you?"

Mae nodded slightly before Gregg asked "Wait.. What reasons are you scared for?"

Mae sighed as she prepared herself to explain everything that's been going on, especially everything surrounding Blacky.

* * *

11:40 P.M. Alley on the right side of the River Shack Complex.

* * *

Bea leaned against a brick wall as she took a drag off of her cigarette, Angus was still rubbing his forehead which had started to bruise and hurt a lot as time passed, Lori and Selmers both were off at the back of the alley trying to make sense of what they were going to do next. All Bea had told them was that they'd go into some mall at the edge of town guns a'blazing, as Lori and Selmers discussed what exactly was going to happen next a Volkswagen Bus pulled up into the alley, the the large car's engine was turned off and the blinding headlights as well, everyone walked over to the bus as the driver side window was rolled down and Steve stuck his head out of it "Hey'a BeaBea. I got the stuff."

Bea prosperously blew smoke into Steve's face but he just rolled his eyes "You know I can still drive out of here."

Bea sighed as she tossed the cigarette to the ground "Just.. Let's see what you got."

He grinned as Bea backed away from the door so he could get out of the car. Steve led everyone to the back of the car and opened up its trunk doors, sitting in the car was two large crates and several racks that were mounted to the car's walls, Steve climbed into the car and opened up one of the crates "Take your pick, got illegal stuff in this one."

He patted the crate he just opened "And everything else is.. Legal enough."

Steve suddenly stared at Lori for a moment making her feel very uncomfortable "You look like the kind of person who's good with a hardy pistol."

He then walked over to one of the racks and took a pistol off of it, it looked like the same pistol that they had messed with back in the woods of Possum Springs. Steve then tossed the gun at Lori who caught it slightly, she fumbled around with it trying to keep it from falling onto the ground, once she finally got a good grasp on it she said "H- How'd you know?"

Steve shrugged "Just something I've picked up on over the years."

He then squatted down to open up the other crate as Angus said "How long is 'over the years'?"

He shrugged again "Depends, when is the legal age of voting?"

"Eighteen."

Steve went silent for a moment "Subtract five years from that."

He then finally popped off the crates top as Selmers said "You've been selling guns since you were thirteen!?"

Steve shook his head "Nah, I've been selling guns since I was fifteen, thirteen is when I started to do... Questionable jobs."

Bea rolled her eyes "I don't care when you stared doing any of this, just give us what we want."

Steve sighed "You are such a party killer BeaBea."

She clenched her fists and took the pistol Lori had in her hands, she then pointed the gun at Steve "Don't call me that. And do what I've called you here to do."

Steve grinned slightly as he looked at the gun "It ain't loaded."

Bea grumbled to herself as she gave Lori back the pistol. Steve then pulled a rifle out of the crate "This bad boy right here is called an ARX 100."

He then handed it to Angus who just kinda held onto it not sure what to do, as Steve went fishing through his crate again Bea said "We aren't here to get an arsenal, we just need something to defend ourselves."

Steve nodded "I know, have you ever seen some one mess with a guy who has an effing rifle?"

Bea sighed "We just need pistols. Or something small like that."

Steve groaned as he stood back up and walked over to one of his racks "What kind of small things do you want, as you know, I got pistols, but I also got some revolvers, and an Uzi or two lying around here."

Angus then carefully placed the ARX down in the car as Bea said "Pistols, just pistols."

Steve nodded as he grabbed three pistols "Here you are."

He then handed them out to everyone other than Lori. As Steve locked up his crates Bea looked over to her friends "Could you.. Give us some space."

Angus nodded as he led the other two away from Bea and Steve. Bea pulled another cigarette out and lit it, at the same time Steve looked over his shoulder to Bea "Oooo~ Some spac-"

Bea cut him off "Don't even try... I'm just trying to get this over with fast.. So please, tell me what's caused you to be so _exhausted_."

Steve rolled his eyes as he finished up closing the crate. After Steve told Bea the strange series of events that had supposedly taken half a night away from him Bea returned to her friends as Steve pulled out of the alley, Lori looked over to Bea "Why did you want us to give you two some space?"

Bea shook her head "He had to tell me about something, it was a made up series of events that had taken up half of last night."

Selmers looked over to Bea "How do you know they were made up?"

Bea scoffed slightly just thinking about it again "I didn't listen to most of it, but to put it basically he got stuck inside of some building his brother's construction crew was gonna demolish today, and he eventually got his brother stuck in there with him. Then there was something about haunted robots, or something like that."

Selmers nodded "Yeah that sounds made up."

Bea also nodded before saying "We ready to go and save Mae and Gregg?"

Everyone nodded and Bea said "Good."

Angus then led them to the car and they pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards the edge of town and that mall.

* * *

11:46 P.M. Marvin Wood Mall, the old storage room.

* * *

Eide suddenly appeared in the storage room that had been turned into a meeting room for this new cult, Eide hated the new cult, they weren't even really a cult, they were just a bunch of angry teens who got together and made some group called "The New Order" the only reason why Eide had come to them in the first place was because the Black Goat had told him to. Eide walked over to the ring of chairs that acted as a meeting space for the New Order, he sat down on one of the chairs and the other cultists, who had been waiting for him, all looked over to him, the others wore shirts and the only thing making them look similar was the fact that the shirts were all red, they also wore jeans and black plastic masks over their faces, when compared to the rest of the group Eide look the most professional, but if you were to ask the members of his former group they'd say he was unprofessional, keeping his cloths dirty all the time, and never taking off the gas mask made Eide look like some kind of thug, not a man who wanted to save his home town no matter what he did to achieve that goal. One of the black masked teens, named Levi, spoke up "What exactly are we waiting for?"

Eide stared at Levi blankly for a moment "We're waiting for the rest of Borowski's friends, once they arrive we'll be able to eliminate any possible attempts at stopping the lord's plans."

Another teen, named Eli, said "What is the _lord's_ plans?"

Eide stood up and everyone, except for Eli, backed away from him "First, don't ever say it like that AGAIN. And second, the lord operates in strange ways, even I know not his plans."

A different teen was about to speak up when someone came running over to the group "H- He's awake."

Eide turned around to face him "Finally."

He then made his way to the corner of the storage room. Sitting on the ground, tied up, covered in blood and tears, was James, the grey cat that told Mae where to find the group's secondary meeting point. Eide crouched down and ripped a piece of duck tape that was covering James's mouth off, as soon as the tape was torn off of his mouth James yelled out "I'M SORRY! JESUS I'M SO SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN, OR WHAT TO DO! PLEASE FORGIVE ME! PLE-"

Eide covered James's mouth "There isn't a need to yell, or cry... All you need to do is sacrifice something to the lord."

Eide removed his hand from James's mouth letting him speak again "W- What do I n- need to sacrifice?"

He shrugged as he inspected James's face. The grey fur on his head was stained with James's tears and blood, he had several bruises and open wounds on his head and James look like he was in a constant state of pain "Well. You angered the lord greatly with your transgression, so to have him forgive you... You should sacrifice something that gives you great pleasure."

James groaned slightly as he attempted to readjust the way he was sitting "I- I don't have anything like that on me."

Eide chuckled slightly as he stood up "No, you do."

He then picked up the crow bar that he had used to punish James several times before, he then pointed the tip of the crow bar at James's crotch "All you have to do is be... Willing."

James tried to back away from Eide but he was already leaning against a wall "N- NO! J- JUST GO GET SOMETHING ELSE! P- PLEASE!"

Eide snapped his fingers "Shut up."

And one of the other cultists put duck tape over James's mouth as Eide raised the crow bar up into the air "It is time for you to make the sacrifice! Either willingly give it over, or have me take it by force."

James attempted to back away from Eide again "You have forced my hand James Howard Mathews."

He then brought the crow bar down onto James's head causing him to release a muffled scream of pain.

* * *

11:46 P.M. Edge of Town, Marvin Wood Mall.

* * *

Angus's car pulled up in front of the mall Gregg and Mae were being held hostage by this new group of black masked teens. Everyone got out of the car and made their way to the front doors of the mall, Bea looked at her friends "Are you guys sure you're ready?"

Everyone nodded slightly as Bea took in a deep breath and took out her pistol "Okay... Let's get going."

Bea carefully opened the door which sadly creaked as it did making her nerves go on edge, everyone then entered the mall and saw that the place was vacant, it had been stripped down to the bare bones of its walls, the stores were empty, and in the center of the mall there was a large square space that was probably once a food court, and in the very center of the former food court was a large hole that looked to have been dug up recently and it was surrounded by large industrial spot lights. The group then started to make their way to the former food court not really sure where to go next, once they entered the food court they heard a voice say "Stop right there."

Everyone turned around to find the new cult standing behind them, they also had guns except they weren't regular everyday guns, they were hunting rifles and all of them were pointed at Bea and her friends, and standing in the middle of the group of cultists was Eide who stepped forwards "Drop the guns."

Bea clenched her fist around the worthless pistol before sadly dropping it, and everyone else followed her lead. Mae could hear the metal security gate be lifted up and when she looked over to the doors she saw Bea, Selmers, Lori, and Angus get shoved into the room. Mae ran over to her friends "What are you guys doing here?!"

Bea clenched her fists "Just wasting our time buying stupid shit from Steve and getting our asses captured."

Mae was about to say something when Gregg looked over to "ANGUS!?"

The bear also looked over to "G- GREGG?!"

Angus then ran over to him and pulled him into a large hug that Gregg sadly couldn't return, because his hands were bound together behind his back. Angus pulled away from Gregg "What did they do to you?! Are you okay?!"

Gregg looked at the ropes that bound him to the chair "I've been better, and they really haven't done anything super. Bad, they just kinda jumped me one night and tied me up, they feed me, and all of that kind of stuff. Although they're has been some times when they don't feed me, and occasionally they'd beat the shit out of me. But over all, they haven't done anything that bad to me."

Mae looked over to Gregg "Are you trying to defend these guys?"

Gregg shook his head "No, eff 'em."

Angus then suddenly lifted Gregg's head up and kissed him. After Angus pulled away from Gregg he said "I've missed you bug."

Gregg smiled "And I've missed you cap'n... Also... I haven't felt my legs for the past few hours, can someone please get me out of these ropes?"

Everyone looked around their surroundings, there wasn't anything in there sharp enough to cut through ropes, and no one could tare the ropes off of Gregg, not even Bea, the person who spent most of her work days moving heavy things, and what made it worse was that no one knew how to untie the knots in the ropes, and it was kinda humiliating. Mae and Bea were girl scouts, and Angus was a boy scout, but they couldn't untie a knot made by some teen in a black mask? Suddenly light poured into the room as the metal security gate was lifted up, standing in the open doorway was Eide, and four other cultists, two on either side of him. The other cultists lifted up their hunting rifles making sure that no one would try and attack them, Eide then said "Margaret Evelyn Borowski, the time has come for all of this to finally come to an end."

Mae gritted her teeth as Eide said her full name "Come and get me you son of a bi-"

She suddenly froze in place as Eide walked towards her, Bea was about to stop Eide when one of the cultists aimed their guns at her stopping her "What did you do to Mae?"

Eide got behind Mae and placed his hand on her shoulder "I haven't do anything. Levi over there has do this, it's his gift."

As Eide mentioned Levi the black masked teen aiming a gun at Bea waved slightly, Gregg motioned for Angus to step aside before saying "What the eff is a gift?"

Eide rolled his eyes "The Black Goat gives most of his servants and followers special gifts, he gave me the ability to go through any object or person, and effortlessly traverse any kind of terrain, and the ability to instantly transport almost anywhere."

Lori was still staring at the gun pointed at her when she spoke up "W- What does almost anywhere mean?"

Eide grinned under his mask "Wouldn't you like to know."

Just then Mae regained the ability to move again, and right as she regained it Eide forced her out of the room and the other cultists closed the security gate after Eide and Mae left the room, Lori punched the wall next to her "DAMMIT!"

Selmers walked over to her and tried her best to comfort Bea but she didn't want to be calmed down, she needed to be pissed, Bea walked past Selmers and over to Gregg "Do you want out of that chair enough to do something incredibly stupid?"

Gregg shrugged "I do stupid stuff all the time, so this won't be any different."

Bea sighed as she looked over to Angus "This is going to sound crazy and dangerous, but just.. Trust me."

Angus nodded before Bea took in a deep breath and told him the plan. Eide led Mae down into the old food court, the hole in the center of the area now had a red hand truck sitting a few inches away from the edge of the hole. As they got closer to the hole two cultists shoved a bloody and partially conscious James into the hole, Eide suddenly stopped a foot away from the hole, Mae tried to get out of his grasp, but for a guy with one arm, it was really strong, as she struggled to free herself a cultist walked over to Eide "Everything is in place and he has been fed."

Eide's grip tightened "Good. Then let's get this over with."

He then shoved Mae towards the hand truck. As Eide forced her onto it another member of the cult walked over to them, she was carrying two chains and two pad locks, once Mae was on the hand truck the female cultist chained Mae's torso and legs to the hand truck, a few moments latter the entire cult walked over to the edge of the hole forming a circle, then someone turned off the spot lights illuminating the area causing the mall to be filled with partial light from the midday sun, Eide suddenly called out "Oh great and powerful Black Goat! Savior of Possum Springs! And our one true lord! We have done all that you have asked! We have brought Margaret Borowski before you so that you may enact your great plan!"

Just then the room began to shake, a deep growl came from within the hole, and a bright red light came out of the hole as well as a thick layer of deep black smoke that covered the floor, then something floated out of the hole, it was a skeleton with long and sharp horns, it was the skeleton of Blacky, suddenly muscle and veins started to grow across the skeleton, and once that was finished, skin and fur grew across the muscle. Blacky's eyes then materialized in his skull and he stared at her " **Hello Borowski, I told you that you'd be seeing me soon.** "

Suddenly he lifted up his right hand, black smoke tendrils then came out of his hand and entered her nose, mouth, and ears before Mae passed out cold.


	19. Mental Mindfield

Mae's Mind

* * *

Black smoke tendrils were wrapped around Mae's wrists and ankles, and she was stretched out into an X looking shape. Her wrists and ankles felt irritated, and her hands and feet were completely numb, she couldn't move, she was surrounded by an endless black void, and looming in front of her was a bright dark red light that looked like a star that was made completely out of blood, Mae struggled to escape her restraints but she just couldn't, she was terrified, she had no clue where she was, or what was about to happen to her. When suddenly, in a massive blast of black smoke, Blacky appeared in front of her a large sadistic smile on his face " **Oh, I've waited a LONG time for this Miss Borowski.** "

Mae's mouth suddenly felt very dry, so when she went to open it she coughed before saying "W- What do you want from me?!"

Blacky cupped his hands together " **Well, you see... For ages now I've been restricted to the Astral Realms of reality, and I was only able to communicate with your realm through someone or, something. And what I want from you is... Complete access.** "

Mae wasn't sure she really wanted to know what Blacky meant by access but he continued anyways " **And when I say complete access, what I mean is that** **I'm going to take control of your body so that I may walk across the ground of your world and go where ever I please, when ever I please, how ever I please. And, the best part is, there's nothing you can do about it!** "

Blacky slowly started to walk towards Mae cackling as he did and Mae tried her best to back away from him. As Mae squirmed around trying to get away from Blacky the evil god said " **Struggle and squirm all you want Borowski, you were always meant to be my vessel, you were always destined to be my pawn in a greater plan that spans across all worlds. There is no way out of this.** "

He then lifted his right hand up, the front of his hand was glowing a bright red as if the skin underneath it was on fire, he reached out to touch Mae's head, she leaned back trying to keep out of his reach, but she couldn't, she was helpless, because another tendril came out of the black void that surrounded them and shoved Mae's head closer to his hand, Blacky's hand then clamped down on Mae's forehead and its touch burned her deeply. Steam and smoke raised from underneath Black's hand as it burned Mae endlessly, slowly the veins in the front of her head started to glow red like the underside of Blacky's hand as the burning continued, she screamed out in agony it all grew in pain, the burning became stronger, her veins ached, and the tendrils put more pressure on their grip causing her wrists and ankles to go from irritated, to engulfed in completely numbing pain, but Blacky still had his sadistic grin, in fact it looked as if he was struggling to keep himself from laughing hysterically again, eventually the veins in Mae's eyes stared to also glow red as Blacky finally said " **Don't worry Borowski, I'm not going to kill you. Not yet, I am simply going to... Exact my revenge upon you.** "

He then removed his hand from Mae's forehead and the tendril restraints suddenly let go of Mae and let her drop to the ground. Once she landed on the black floor several long red cracks grew in the ground underneath her, she attempted to pick herself up off of the ground but the tendrils above her would whip her back each time she'd try to stand up, Blacky crouched down in front of Mae " **When I'm through with you.** "

He then grabbed Mae's chin and forcefully lifted her head up so she could see Blacky's face " **You're going to be a shell of your former self.** "

He then let go of Mae's chin, and snapped his fingers, right as he snapped them the tendrils all at once hit Mae with a painful whip, then the ground underneath her gave way and she fell into an endless, pitch black, soul crushing, void of absolutely nothing, and loneliness.

* * *

11:51 P.M. Marvin Wood Mall, The empty and abandoned store.

* * *

Bea climbed atop Angus's shoulders before saying to Selmers, who was holding both the chair Gregg was restrained to and of course Gregg, "Okay, hand him to me."

As she handed Bea Gregg and the chair she said "I'm having second thoughts about this."

Gregg nodded slightly as Bea got a good grasp on the chair "Yeah, maybe there's some other way to get me out of this chair without throwing me?"

Bea lifted Gregg up slightly "Nope... No.. Other way!"

She then looked down to Angus's head "Y- You ready?"

The bear nodded before he said "Everyone out of the way!"

The only person who was possibly in the way of things was Lori who promptly moved out of the way when she was told to. Bea took in a deep breath, Gregg braced himself, Angus closed his eyes, Lori shielded her face, and Selmers couldn't help but stare as Bea threw Gregg and the chair at the dirty tile floor, the back of the chair collided with the floor and it broke upon impact finally freeing Gregg once and for all, Bea climbed off of Angus and went over to Gregg "You alright?"

Gregg nodded slightly as Bea helped him stand up and also slide the loose ropes off of him, he then rubbed his back as a halfhearted smile appeared on his face "But hey! I'm free aren't I?"

Angus nodded "Sure are."

Suddenly everyone heard the security gate that kept them locked inside of the empty store slide up. They looked over to the store's front doors and saw standing in the doorway was one of those black masked, red shirted teens, he was also holding a hunting rifle in his hands, and there was a bright red light coming from the food court which would be behind him at the moment. The teen stepped forwards "What's with all of that noi-"

The teen was then uppercut by Angus, the punch knocked the teen out and as he fell to the floor Angus said "No one, EVER, messes with my Gregg."

The fox smiled widely "Yeah! No one, other then Steve can mess with-"

Bea placed her hand over Gregg's mouth "Let's not talk about Steve right now."

Gregg nodded and as Bea removed her head he said "Alright."

Just then Angus picked up the hunting rifle the teen was holding and handed it to Gregg "You're gonna need this bug."

Gregg stared at the rifle, a big childish grin on his face "Sweet!"

Angus then turned around and faced the rest of the group "Now let's go find OUR weapons."

Bea nodded "I think I might just know where they are."

Before leading them out of the store, but before she could continue forwards she saw Mae, chained to a red hand truck, eyes half open, surrounded by the cultists, and floating in front of her was... The Black Goat. Bea practically vaulted over the guard rails in front of her if Angus hadn't put his hand on her shoulder "You're gonna get yourself killed if you do that."

He then looked over to Lori and Selmers "You two, go get our guns. Bea, where did they take them?"

Bea pointed towards a door that she saw one of the cultists that took their guns away walk to before Bea and her friends were tossed into that store, Angus then looked back over to Lori and Selmers "Once you get our weapons... You'll know what to do I guess."

Selmers and Lori then nodded before the two of them took off towards the door Bea had pointed to. Angus then looked at Bea and Gregg "Let's go save Mae."

The three of them then ran down the second level's stairs and towards the group of cultists and Blacky, and before Gregg even thought about it, he aimed the rifle at Blacky, and fired off four shoots, the entire group of cultists looked over to Gregg, Angus, and Bea after the shots were fired, Angus and Bea quickly grabbed Gregg and ran into an empty food vendor store in the food court, Blacky raised his left hand up to touch the side of his head, there were three holes in the side of his head, the fourth one missed him somehow, Blacky then took a look at his left hand's fingers and saw that there was white liquid on them, he was bleeding, Blacky clenched his fists and grumbled out " **Kill them.** "

To the cultists, Blacky's followers then picked up their rifles and started to shoot at Bea and her three friends.

* * *

90:32 A.H. Somewhere deep within Mae's mind.

* * *

Mae fell for what seemed like forever, nothing felt real, she felt completely numb, she could barely even see herself in the pitch black void that surrounded her. Suddenly she stared to slow down, eventually she was floating midair, as she floated through the void strange things appeared in front of her, they looked like large shards of glass, but what made them strange was that the shards of glass looked to be made of Mae's own memories, she saw that there was one shard made of the memory of that really bad flood back in 2002, she saw a younger Gregg wave at a younger Mae from on top of a dog house. Then she saw a different memory shard bump into the flood memory, the flood memory floated away from Mae and the shard that bumped the other shard away showed Mae some class in high school, Mae wasn't sure why she would remember one of those classes, suddenly all of the memory shards around her started to combined into one and other, eventually they turned into the image of Blacky, he looked as though he was an image on a stain glass window, Blacky glared at Mae and said " **Borowski. Your mind wasn't once broken, it was once all intact, and almost perfect.** "

Suddenly the black void that surrounded Mae turned bright white, and Blacky fell into pieces of glass, those pieces of glass then started to turn into rectangle windows and all clumped into two walls of a narrow hallway that stretched upwards forever, and forwards and backwards forever, all of the window memories were so organized, neat, and tidy, it made Mae feel even worse about herself. As Mae inspected the window memories they all turned bright red, and the voice of Blacky suddenly boomed through everyone of them " **Your mind was once EXACTLY like this at one point and time, but then THIS happened.** "

Suddenly a massive baseball bat swung at the memory walls and there was a massive flash of bright white light that made Mae close her eyes, and when she opened them she saw that she was floating back in the black void again. Although this time stain glass Blacky wasn't in front of her, but suddenly the loud and blooming voice of Blacky came from all around her " **Now, you're ALWAYS going to be stuck like this, you're going to be stuck with a broken mind and memories.** "

Suddenly weight returned to Mae and she resumed her fall downwards into the black void, she watched as the shards of her memories flew past her and entered the infinite black horizon of the black void around her. She then flipped around so that her chest was facing downwards, right as she flipped around she saw that there was a massive red tinted black memory shard in front of her and she was approaching it fast, she raised her hands up to protect her face from colliding with the memory shard, but she didn't collide with it, she passed right through it, the surface of the shard rippled like water. Once Mae dropped her hands she saw that she was in a different colored void, the color of the void was grey and it was silent, deafening silent, and she was getting closer to the ground fast! Mae slammed into the ground hard, her body felt broken, everything burned and stung, it hurt to keep her eyes open. Above her she could see the memory shards floating up in the air far out of her reach, suddenly a dark red light shown down upon Mae like a spot light " **You're broken, you're alone, you're FORGOTTEN! No one loves you, no one cares for you. No one has ever loved you, no one has ever cared about you. Borowski... Why do you even try anymore? All of your hopes, dreams, goals, ambitions.. They were all destroyed by your poor choices, and broken mind.** "

Something in front of her appeared out of thin air, it was the kid that Mae beat half to death at that softball game, except he was made out of those shapes, he pointed to himself " _You did this to me._ "

He was pointing at his own head which, even through the shapes, was still bloody from the Incident " **You're life is empty... It's so... Worthless... Why even try anymore?** "

Andy then disappeared and Mae finally closed her eyes " **Heh, goodbye Borowski. I'm off to take control of your body, at least.. That way you won't be able to make any more horrible decisions in your life.** "

The red spot light then disappeared and Mae was left alone in an endless, deafeningly silent, and forgotten void.

* * *

Marvin Wood Mall, food court.

* * *

In between shoots, Gregg poked his head over the counter and tried to shoot at the attacking cultists, but each of the shots missed. Gregg ducked behind the counter as more shots were fired at him, Bea looked at Gregg "Aren't you supposed to be good at shooting stuff!?"

Gregg also looked over to Bea "I- I'm good at shooting a CROSSBOW! Not this thing!"

Bea slammed her fist against the counter next to her "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!"

"THIS THING USES BALLISTICS! A CROSSBOW USES ARROWS!"

Suddenly the room shook slightly, and the shots stopped. The three of them poked their heads over the counter and saw that Blacky's whole body was trembling, he had his eyes closed, he also had his hand a mere inch away from Mae's face, and Mae herself had her eyes half closed and her head violently shook from side to side, it looked as if Mae's head was being forced to look around violently by some invisible force, the cultists had all lost interest in the other three when Blacky began to tremble. Eide stepped forwards "It is almost complete! The lord's greatest plan is almost finished!"

Just then Blacky opened his eyes and they were pure red, they glowed like spot lights, and he let out a deafeningly loud, and deep, screech at the same time Mae's entire body began to violently convulses, the large industrial spot lights that sat in a circle around the hole began to flicker while all of that was going on. Bea couldn't help herself, she stood up and yelled out "MAE!"

This caught Eide's attention " _YOU_."

He then suddenly teleported over to the three of them, Gregg was about to aim the rifle at Eide when he suddenly grabbed Angus's throat, what Eide did next absolutely terrified Bea and Gregg, Eide lifted Angus up off of the ground by his throat, as he did Eide growled and his arm trembled slightly "You. Dropped. A. Fucking. ELEVATOR ON ME!"

Angus's tried to free himself from Eide's grasp which only caused his hat and glasses to slide off of Angus's head slightly.

* * *

Mae's subconscious.

* * *

"MAE!"

That word echoed around Mae's head, it was her name, but it felt foreign. As Mae laid motionless and broken on the grey ground of the void, she thought about how she could've done something about all of this, she could've prevented herself from succumbing to her broken mind throughout her entire life, she could've prevented this new cult from coming together if she would've just killed the old cult- No, she didn't think that thought, that was a thought from Blacky, she didn't want to kill the cult, she didn't mean for the mine to collapse on them, she didn't mean to tare Eide's arm off, it wasn't her fault, she wasn't a murderer! But, why would it matter? Blacky's going to take control of her body, and he's going to, probably, kill countless people, so in one way or another she's is going to be a murderer, and there wasn't anything she could do about it, she's just a weak, broken, useless, worthless twenty year old who acts half her own age, she can't do anything right, she's never done anything right, everything she's ever touched always failed, no matter what it was, she's just so useless that it hurt her sometimes, all of this, it could've been avoided if she wasn't just so useless, worthless, and irresponsible.

"Okay no, I'm not going to listen to this anymore."

Something poked Mae's arm, she groaned as she opened her eyes and saw Casey Hartley crouched down in front of her, he stood up and smiled "Told ya' I could wake her."

Someone behind Casey said "I never said you couldn't.. They did."

As Mae struggled to stand up she looked over her shoulder and saw that standing behind her, bathed in an unnatural red light, was the original cult. Mae looked back over to Casey and saw that standing behind him was Mae's granddad "Hello Mae."

She didn't know how to react to any of this, I mean, she was surrounded by dead people "W- What's going on here? A- Am I dead?!"

Casey shook his head "No, you're not dead. At least not yet, anyways, you're simply stuck in your own subconscious."

Mae raised an eyebrow in confusion "What?"

Casey sighed "Yeah, okay... A subconscious is an area of your mind where distant and forgotten memories are stored, so that they can eventually be forgotten. That's why those memory shard things are floating up in the air."

He pointed up to one of the shards before continuing "And we're... Not really your own head.. We also not really made out of your memories.. We're.."

He just couldn't find the right word for it, just then Mae's granddad spoke up "We're you conscious, you know, that angle that stands on your shoulder and tells you right from wrong."

The leader of the old cult then said "So what? That makes us that little devil?"

Casey nodded "Might as well be, you effing threw me into a hole!"

The cultists rolled their eyes in unison "WE didn't even do that, we're just manifestations of Mae's dying mind attempting to cope with her own guilt."

Everyone went silent for a moment before Casey said "My mom made me read a dictionary each time she grounded me and even I don't know what you just said."

The cult was about to say something when Mae suddenly blurted out "So wait. Am I dead?"

Casey shook his head "No."

The cultists nodded "Yes."

Mae groaned as she put her head in her hands. After a moment of groaning into her hands she looked up from them and said "So what's going on here? Am I coping with my guilt or not?"

Mae's granddad answered with "Well... This is more of.. An intervention.. What I mean is that, you can either stop beating yourself up about things you had no control over, or you can continue to do that and let Blacky into your body."

Mae nodded "And how do I do that?"

Casey shrugged "Well, we could all hear your thoughts, so we all know that you called yourself worthless and useless, so let's start there."

Mae sighed and nodded again, right then that feeling of uselessness returned to her, she felt like she couldn't ever do anything right "I am useless, I am worthless. I ruin everything."

Mae's granddad then said "How so?"

She shrugged "Like Blacky said, all of my hopes and dreams were shattered by one stupid outburst. And, my relationships.. I ruin those all the time."

Casey scoffed "No you don't."

Mae nodded "Yes I do... When I was twelve, I ruined and destroyed me and Bea's relationship all because I got so caught up with you.. And when I came back from college, I almost destroyed Gregg and Angus's relationship, and I almost re-ruined my none existent relationship with Bea."

Casey grinned slightly "You, kept on, saying.. ALMOST! Mae EVERYONE almost ruins their relationships with people, come on, everyone's stupid. It's just what happens. Besides you never ruined my relationship with you, I've been your friend since we were five, and I never left your side since."

Mae felt a pit form in her stomach "Until you... Died."

Casey's excitement was soured by that "Oh.. Yeah.. W- Well, that wasn't your fault, no one even knew about the cult then, you couldn't have stopped it from happening, no one could."

One of the cultists suddenly said "If she's such a good friend, then why did she drag her friends to the mines? Why did she almost get them killed several times? And yes, no one could've stopped your sacrifice, except for.. You.. Casey Hartley.. You could've stopped it."

Casey shook his head "Wow you guys are bad at this, all you did was just prove my-"

"WE PROVED NOTHING! TELL ME, WHY DID SHE DRAG HER FRIENDS TOWARDS CERTAIN DEATH!? WHY DID SHE GET THEM STUCK IN SO MANY DEADLY SITUATIONS EVEN AFTER **WE** DIED?! **TELL ME!** "

Casey backed away slightly in shock "W- Well, b- because."

Mae shook her head "They're right. I got them stuck in so many deadly situations just because I wanted to find a ghost, just because I wanted to stop my dreams, it's all my fault, it's always my fault, I.. Can't.. Ever.. Do.. Anything.. Right."

Tears started to roll down Mae's cheeks as she finished her sentence. Suddenly she was pulled into a hug, she opened her eyes and looked up to see that her granddad had pulled her into the hug "Mae... Remember what I said to you when you lost that little game at your school that one time?"

She was about to dig up that memory when a shard floated by them and played the memory for them all to see. A much younger Mae was holding her granddad's hand, she had a pouted look on her face, and she had her other hand clenched into a fist, they were also walking on the sidewalk heading for home when her granddad then suddenly looked down to Mae and said "What's bug'n you Mae?"

The little cat huffed "I lost some dumb game."

Her granddad nodded "So why's it still got you so worked up?"

Mae sighed "Because it made me realize something."

Mae's granddad raised an eyebrow "What it make you realize?"

Mae sniffled slightly "It made me realize I'm the most unlucky person in the world."

Mae's granddad grinned slightly "No, no. You're not the most unlucky person in the world."

Mae looked up to her granddad "Then why was I the only one who lost that cup game?"

Mae's granddad raised an eyebrow again "What cup game?"

Mae shrugged "You know, the one where you get three cups and put a ball under one, then you shuffle em' around and guess which one the ball's under."

Mae's granddad nodded "Ah, that ball game... Well Mae.. Let me ask you this, who was in charge of shuffling the cups?"

She went silent for a moment before answering "Mathew Davis."

Mae's granddad nodded again "Oh... But I thought he was the kid who picked on you a lot in class."

Mae nodded "Yeah but.. But I thought that.. I thought that maybe that one time."

Mae's granddad sighed "I know that your heart was in the right place Mae, giving him a second chance, but sometimes certain people, they don't deserve a second chance from someone else... Sometimes, they... Need to give themselves a second chance, sometimes they need to accept something bad they did one time, and move on."

Mae went silent again "...So... What you're saying is?"

Mae's granddad sighed "What I'm saying is that, you can give Mathew all the second chances you want.. But at the end of the day his actions are his actions, your actions are your actions, and nothing can change that. So the best we can do is wait for him to change, and if he doesn't.. Then maybe he was never meant to."

Just then the memory shard floated away and the playback stopped. Mae sniffled as she left her granddad's embrace "M- My actions, are my actions.. Their actions, are their actions.. And nothing can change that... I didn't ruin anything... I didn't kill anyone, I just have to.. Move on."

One of the cultists suddenly said "Yeah, but you did kill us."

Casey groaned "Jesus! She didn't mean to!"

The cultist put his hands up defensively "Just say'n."

Mae sighed "Doesn't matter.. Doesn't matter if that wasn't good advice.. Doesn't matter if I took it the wrong way.. Doesn't matter if I meant to kill them or not. What's in the past, is in the past. I can't change the past, and the past isn't my fault. Not anymore."

Mae's granddad smiled and he backed away from Mae "Now Mae, this next choice is something you can only make once, and by yourself.. You can either stop beating yourself up about things beyond your control and fight back against Blacky.. Or you can give in, you can keep blaming everything on yourself and let Blacky win, you can let him take control of your body... What do you say?"

Casey raised his hand and waited for Mae to grab it, the cultists made a pathway for Mae to walk down, and standing in the middle of both of them was Mae, a person who's been beating herself up for the past few years, could she even stop it? Could she even stop beating herself up long enough for her to fight back against a god who's trying to take over her own body? and even if she did, what then? Blacky's got like, an army, and magic powers, the only thing she's got is some mind thing that blasts people and a couple of friends who'll put up with her bullshit a lot, Mae grabbed Casey's hand "If I'm going to die, I want to die fighting, that way.. It'll hurt, cuz it meant that I lost. It meant that I fought for something worth fighting for."

Casey smiled "That's the Mae I know."

Just then the cultists dissolved into red steam, the unnatural red light that bathed over them disappeared, so did Casey and her granddad. Suddenly a bright white light shown down from the sky, and she started to float up off of the ground towards it, the grey void slowly got darker as she got closer to the bright light, and she eventually looked up into it, she saw that in the light was Blacky, he was in the mall, he had his hand over Mae's face, those spot lights were flickering, and Blacky was trembling, but what she couldn't see was Eide, he was gone from the image entirely, which wasn't a good sign, but she'd have to cross that bridge once she came to it, and right now, the bridge she was crossing was "how do I make a god let go of my face?"

Right then she passed into the light and reentered the real world.


	20. Goat Got Your Head?

11:56 P.M. Marvin Wood Mall, food court.

* * *

Eide watched as blood began to pool in Angus's head, Gregg wanted desperately to do something, but he just wasn't strong enough, and he couldn't shoot Eide, he might hit Angus! Bea was terrified, she just watched a one armed man lift Angus, a pretty heavy dude, off of the ground, sure it wasn't that high off of the ground, but, it's still higher then Bea could even muster, Eide tightened his grip around Angus's neck "I was trapped down there for two hours... I had to sacrifice the only family I've ever known, all because you dropped a fucking elevator on me!.. I was lucky that I can faze through objects or else I'd actually be dead."

Angus put his hands on Eide's arm and tried to rip it off of his neck, but he just couldn't, everything around Angus was starting to go dark, he couldn't breath. Then suddenly, Blacky began to groan, Eide dropped Angus and walked through the counter towards Blacky, he stood on the edge of the hole next to Blacky and said "Lord! What's wrong?"

Blacky's hand was being shoved away from Mae's face by some invisible force " **She is... Resisting.** "

Once his hand was off of Mae's face her eyes jolted open, she gasped for air and looked like she was in the middle of a headache, Eide looked back over to Blacky "What should I do lord?"

Blacky was straining himself to regain the upper hand in this fight " **There is nothing you can do... Except kill... Her friends.** "

As Bea watched that go on she could see Lori and Selmers were coming down the stairs from the second level, she crouched down next to Gregg, who was crouched down next to Angus, and said "We need to help Mae. Lori and Selmers, they got our stuff."

Gregg nodded "Cap'n, are you okay? Can you move?"

Angus nodded "Y- Yeah, I'll be fine. L- Let's help Mae."

Gregg nodded again and helped Angus stand up before the three of them ran over to Lori and Selmers. Mae's head burned, there was this constant pounding feeling in her brain and it hurt, she felt like she was about to pass out or puke, and what made things worse was the smell that came off of Eide. He smelled like dirt, ash, sulfur, and Mae's bedroom after a year of not cleaning it, all mixed together, that smell made her eyes water so that, combined with the pain in her head, was causing her to have trouble focusing, what she was trying to focus on? She had no clue, all she knew was that if she didn't stop focusing on it she'd let Blacky back in to her head, wait, her head, she has that weird mind thing, with the shock waves, she can blast Blacky back and, figure something else out from there, Mae began to tell herself that she was in life threatening danger, that she could be killed, that Blacky had to be stopped, all in an attempt to have her mind thing go off, all the while Blacky just floated there straining himself to put his hand back on Mae's face so he can get back inside of her head. Eide spun around and saw Bea and the other two running over to Selmers and Lori, he looked over to the other cultists "Get them!"

The others then raised their weapons and began to fire and Mae's friends, Gregg pulled Angus to the side and out of the bullet fire, while Bea ducked her head and narrowly avoided an incoming shot, Mae saw Bea duck underneath that shot, and once she did something in her head clicked, the spot lights began to flicker faster, any glass still left in the mall began to shake violently, and a shock wave hit Blacky, it pushed him back slightly, but he just floated closer to Mae, another shock wave, and he returned to her " **You think that you can use one of my own gifts against me? You are truly mistaken Borowski.** "

Mae was beginning to panic. Her mind thing wasn't stopping Blacky, it didn't even disarm the cultists, the only thing that it did was make glass shake a lot, while she panicked her metal shock waves started to get stronger, they pushed Blacky farther back, and each time one hit him he'd actually groan slightly. Mae's friends were able to get out of the cultists sight and Bea looked over to Lori "Lori- Are you alright?"

Lori had one hand on her chest, her grip around the gun she was holding was really tight so her knuckles were starting to go white, she had this distant yet panicked look on her face, and she was breathing heavily "N- No. I'm not fine.. I'm about to.. To."

As she spoke she started to hyper ventilate, as Lori started to hyper ventilate Angus tossed her his hat "Breath into it. Everything's going to be fine."

But was it really? Everything was practically hopeless, that was until, Blacky yelled out in frustration " **LET ME IN BOROWSKI! IT IS FUTILE TO RESIST!** "

Mae strained herself to keep her mental shock waves going as she yelled out in response "NEVER! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU OR ANY CULT EVER AGAIN!"

Blacky and Mae then both started to yell at each other, Blacky was struggling to get his hand back on Mae's face, and Mae was struggling to resist him, then something happened, Blacky's hand suddenly grabbed onto Mae's face, and the two of them passed out at the same time.

* * *

Mae opened her eyes and found herself in yet another void, but what made this one different from the void in her mind was that, the side she was standing in was pure white, while the side Blacky was standing in was pitch black with red cracks in it. Blacky was now much taller then Mae, he was taller then anyone Mae knew, but yet somehow, it looked natural, it looked as if he was just a really tall guy and not some giant, Blacky looked around the black and white void in confusion and anger " **What happened, what did you do?! What did I do!?** "

Mae shrugged "I don't know. My best guess is that our minds have kinda combined to make this place."

Blacky furrowed his brow and growled " **...Mae Borowski, no matter what you do. I'll always get access to your mind. Even now.** "

Mae suddenly realized something, he was right, now that their minds were combined all he'd need to do is kill her and Blacky would have control over Mae, but, what Mae also realized was that, she had access to Blacky's mind, she could see what he has seen, she could feel what he has felt, she could smell what he had smelt, which was disgusting and possibly the only downside to any of this. Mae smiled "Yeah, you may have access, but so do I.. I can see, and hear, and feel everything you've ever done.. I know your deepest darkest thoughts... I know your worst fears!"

Blacky suddenly became quite scared, he backed away slightly " **Y- You have no clue what you're messing with!** "

Mae nodded "You're right, I don't know a single thing about snooping around someone's head, but, when I do something that I've never done before, I end up breaking a thing or two."

Mae then ran towards Blacky a grin on her face. She wasn't sure if she was about to die, she wasn't really sure what might happen, but all she knew was that she might as well try something, because if she didn't, then her friends would die, at least this way, Mae wouldn't have to wait for her friends to arrive in the after life, Blacky pulled his right arm back preparing it to punch Mae " **You will die at my hands!** "

Blacky was about to punch Mae when she suddenly ducked downwards, as she ducked she lost her balance and fell onto the pitch black ground and disappeared, him watched as Mae's side of the void began to turn black and the red cracks began to grow in size, he clenched his fists and yelled at the endless abyss in front of him.

* * *

Gregg tried to shoot at the cultists but he could barely peek out from behind the cover so he couldn't ever line up a shot, Bea was attempting to comfort Lori who was still hyper ventilating, and Selmers was trying her best to teach Angus how to shoot a gun. Suddenly Blacky took his hand off of Mae's face, he clenched his fists, he backed away from the cat, and yelled loudly, the building shook slightly which caused dirt and dust to rain down from the ceiling, Eide raised his hand up "STOP!"

The cultists stopped firing and Eide turned around to look at Blacky, but before he could say anything Blacky raised his hands up to the sides of his head, he shook his head and groaned out in pain, he was starting to ball himself up into the fetal position while his hands still griped onto the fur on the sides of his head, he moved his head around as if he was being yelled at and it was hurting his ears. Eide stepped forwards cautiously "L- Lord, what is wrong?"

Blacky opened his eyes and they were glowing like bright white spot lights, he let go of his head, and began to stretch his body out in pain, once all of his limbs were stretched out Blacky looked up to the ceiling and opened up his mouth, which also glowed bright white like a spot light, before letting loose an animalistic howl that made everyone feel hallow, alone, soulless, and cold.

The entire building shook as Blacky let loose that evil howl, while Eide was distracted Gregg peeked over the cover and tried to shoot the leader of the cult, Eide heard the sound of the gun shot just in time, and the bullet passed right through him. Gregg quickly duck back behind the cover as Eide turned around and stomped over to them, suddenly a hand came through the table and grabbed Gregg's shirt, Eide then picked Gregg up off of the ground and carried him towards the hole and Blacky, Gregg was trying desperately to get out of Eide's grasp as he yelled "What are you doing!?"

Eide didn't look at Gregg as he responded "The lord needs a sacrifice to increase his powers, you will be that sacrifice."

Gregg's eyes widened in shock "W- WHY?!"

Eide stopped in front of the hole and looked at Gregg "Because... I still have that arrow you shot me with."

He then held Gregg over the hole, Angus stood up from behind the cover "NO DON'T!"

And everyone else also stood up, but Angus was the only one who said something, Bea just couldn't open her mouth, her entire body was shaking, she felt so scared, she was lucky that she was able to stand up just then. Eide lifted Gregg up slightly higher "LORD! TAKE THIS SACRIFICE SO THAT YOU MAY GAIN MORE STRENGTH IN THE BATTLE AGAINST MAE BOROWSKI'S WILL!"

He was about to drop Gregg into the hole when a massive shock wave suddenly came from Blacky, it knocked everyone back, Eide was blasted backwards and onto the ground while Gregg slid across the ground back over to his friends, the other cultists slammed against the walls behind them, and the rest of Mae's friends were all pushed back slightly by the shock wave, their shoes skid across the ground as they attempted to resist the power of the shock wave, luckily they didn't fall over somehow.

* * *

Mae felt horrible, she felt so tired, irritated, angry, alone, bored, and uncomfortable all at the same time, she also felt like she was nauseous. She decided that she might as well open her eyes and see if she was dying, but when she opened her eyes she wished she had died, because she wasn't in her own body anymore, well not really, her fur was the same color, her eyes were the same color, and that little bit of dyed fur was the same, but what was different was that, she had the body of Blacky, and the horns of him as well, she looked like a female version of Blacky that also had the same colors as Mae, she looked at her arms and could just tell from seeing them that her fur wasn't the same anymore either, she had the fur of a goat, not just that, but the fur of a goat who's never taken care of themselves in their life, she then took a look at the rest of her body and saw that she was, naked! Except, she didn't have any... sensitive bits, that nauseous feeling came back and stronger then ever before, she was going to puke, Mae doubled over and onto the pitch black ground before throwing up something disgusting, it didn't look like a liquid, or some kind of solid, it looked like, smoke, suddenly what ever she threw up jumped up off of the ground and grew in size, it floated in the air and eventually the face of Blacky appeared in it " **W- WHAT DID YOU DO!?** "

Mae suddenly stood up, she had no clue what she had done, all she knew was that she tripped and feel onto Blacky's side of their joint minds and now here she was, half Mae, half Blacky, and there he was, a ball of black smoke that had a face coming out of it. She suddenly realized that she actually had no clue where she was, Mae took a look around and saw that she was in what looked to be a large cave, there was stalagmites and stalactites all over the place, but there was also mining gear everywhere, mine carts, mine cart tracks, pickaxes, sledgehammers, and there was lights hung up from the ceiling, but due to the fact that everything was pitch black, except for the mining stuff which all still had their original colors, the lights didn't actually illuminate anything, Mae then inspected the area in front of her and saw that there was a massive opening in front of her, the opening led to the ceiling of the mall? No, that wasn't an opening, that was Blacky's eyes, that what he was seeing right now, or what his body was seeing right now, she was in Blacky's head, Mae looked at Blacky-the-small-puff-of-smoke and said " ** _Ha! I did it! I'm in you're head-_** "

Her voice, it sounded deep, distorted, and like her original voice all at the same time, it made Mae feel, just bad, she didn't really know how to articulate her feelings towards her voice at the time so she had to settle for it making her feel, just bad, Blacky the Puff flew closer to Mae's face " **You don't know what you're messing with! You are trapped inside of the mind of a being beyond even your own comprehension!** "

Mae shrugged " _ **Whatever, all I need to do is mess everything up and escape.**_ "

The Puff growled at her " **You do not even know how my mind works! How would you know how to break it!?** "

Mae thought about it for a moment " _ **...I guess.. The only why I've ever broken things, by snooping around in places I shouldn't and hit'n stuff with a bat.**_ "

Suddenly a spiked bat appeared in Mae's right hand " _ **Sweet!**_ "

She then spun around and struck the closest thing to her. What she struck was a stalagmite, and her bat destroyed it effortlessly. Blacky yelled at Mae as she ran around breaking everything around her, eventually Mae came to a small stalagmite and she raised her bat up into the air so she could hit it on the top of its head, but before she could Blacky suddenly yelled out " **That's enough!** "

He then blasted Mae with some kind of smoke thing and the goat-cat was flung towards the wall of the Blacky's mind cave, she burst through the wall and landed on the other side. Mae groaned as she got up off of the ground and took another look around at her surroundings, she was in a large and fancy library, there were tall wooden bookshelves that stretched upwards for as far as her eyes could see, and the bookshelves stretched forwards for as far as she could see, this was.. this was Blacky's memories, this is where he keeps them, and his memories were the books on the shelves, Mae immediately grabbed the book closest to her and looked at it, the cover was made of leather and it was colored a nice shade of crimson red, and the title of the book read " _How I 'accidentally' made the SS party in 1925_." Mae wasn't really sure what the book was about, but she didn't really want to know. She was about to place the book back down on the bookshelf when Blacky suddenly yelled at her " **DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!** "

So instead of putting the book back down, she dropped it and bolted, Mae was running much faster then she ever had before, maybe it was because of her much longer legs, maybe it was because she had godlike stamina, or maybe it was because when Blacky entered his own memory-storage-place he suddenly grew to a massive size, the massive puff of Blacky smoke now was much taller then Mae and he had massive smoke tendrils coming out of his body, the tendrils lashed out at everything around him and especially at Mae. Mae continued to run from the monster that was chasing after her, all the while Blacky destroyed everything in his path while somehow not destroying the books that represented his memories, and at the same time Mae's eyes darted all around trying to find something, anything that could help her. Suddenly she saw a long stone hallway over to her left, and at the end of that hallway was a large book that was stored inside of a cage, Mae suddenly turned left and ran down a different path heading for that stone hallway, and Blacky followed her. A large tendril suddenly lashed at Mae and caused her trip over, she looked over her shoulder and watched in horror as Blacky got closer to her, she quickly picked herself up off of the ground and continued to run towards that book behind the cage, Blacky suddenly lunged at Mae and started to turn into what looked like a large snake made of smoke that had tendrils coming out of it, and at the same time Mae entered the stone hallway.

Blacky slammed onto the stone ground a few inches behind Mae and continued to chase after her as she got closer to the book, and now that she was closer to it she could see that its cover was made out of brown fur, and the pages looked to be yellow and extremely neglected, what she also noticed was that the cage didn't have an entrance, she began to panic, she was going to die, she was going to get cornered in this hallway and Blacky was going to eat her, or rip her to shreds, she didn't even know how he was going to kill her but the point was that he WAS going to kill her, as she panicked something inside of her began to change, her body began to emit black smoke, and suddenly she turned into a cloud of smoke and flew through the bars in the cage, she then materialized on the other side of the cage and next to the book, Blacky didn't have enough time to stop so his head collided with the cage and it stopped his momentum immediately. The cage shook when Blacky smacked into it and Mae almost fell over, she then quickly spun back around and looked at the old book that sat on a marble pillar. She hesitantly opened up the book and looked at the first page, it was just a blank black page, but suddenly something began to materialized in the center of the page, it was Blacky, he took a look around the empty void and once he finished looking around his face grew a confused and worried look on it, he spun around and started to run all the while yelling for someone, anyone, to find him, to talk to him, to just be there, then the image stopped at that point, Mae flipped to the next page and saw that Blacky continued to run around the void yelling at nothing, the next page was the same.

And for the next twelve pages it was exactly the same, he'd just run, and yell endlessly, that was until the fourteenth page. Blacky fell to his knees and yelled at the sky of that void, he yelled the same message he had been yelling since he first appeared in there, he just wanted to know that he wasn't alone, after he finished yelling out his message Blacky sat there and waited for a long time, he then began to cry before he collapsed onto the ground and closed his eyes still crying, then the that page stopped there, Mae flipped to the next page and watched as the memory began to play when suddenly Blacky's tendrils wrapped around the bars and tore them out of their place allowing him to enter the cage and he then lunged at Mae, and she quickly spun around holding the book up to try and block Blacky, suddenly a large white flash came from the book and it caused Mae to closer her eyes to avoid her eyes from getting hurt by just how bright it was.


	21. Raging Fire

39234 B.T. 4:30 A.M.

* * *

Silence, darkness, it all surrounded Mae yet again, but she'd gotten used to it by now, what she hadn't gotten used to yet was her new-ish goat/cat body. Although now that Mae actually took a good look at her surroundings she could see that the darkness that surrounded her wasn't like the others, it wasn't like an unlit room, instead it was like a room filled with a thick black smoke that blocked out everything behind it, but how did she get here? the last thing she remembered was that, in an instance of panic, she raised up that old book of Blacky's memories and it emitted a large flash of light, and now she's here. Suddenly Mae could here something behind her, she spun around and she could see that there was something lying on the ground a few feet ahead of her, she started to walk towards the source of the sound but she she did Mae could feel that the ground was uneven, not super uneven, but like a dirt type of uneven, there were bumps and ridges in the ground but it felt natural, Mae continued to walk towards the sound and the image of whatever was the source of it was starting to come into view through the thick black smoke. As she got closer to the sound it started to sound clearer to her, it sounded kind of like crying, eventually she finally reached the source of the sound and saw that the thing that was lying on the ground was Blacky, and he was the one crying, he was curled up into a fetal position and he was lying on his side, Mae didn't know what to think about what she saw in front of her, the person that has been ruining her life for the past two years is on the floor crying right in front of her.

Suddenly the crying Blacky opened his eyes and said " **I spent centuries doing this exact same thing, I was so... Scared? Alone? Afraid?... It didn't matter, I was always like this.. Until.** "

Suddenly a portal like thing appeared in front of Mae and Blacky, the crying Blacky suddenly stood up and ignored Mae, he looked into the portal and so did Mae. They both saw that the portal led to what looked like a blue tinted forest, with a dark blue sky, it was that Astral Realm that Mae went to like hundreds of times last time, Blacky hesitantly walked into the portal and it suddenly expanded. It engulfed the strange black smoke filled world and Mae took another looked at her surroundings, it looked like the forest outside of Possum Springs, specifically the area around that little spot where Mae went to that party where she puked tacos and watered down beer at last year. Suddenly something materialized in front of Blacky and Mae, it was the Sky Cat, the Not-God's eyes stared down at Blacky before the Goat-Devil said " **Wh- Who are you?** "

The Sky Cat remained silent for a moment before saying "I have been watching you for the past four centuries, I know all about you, and I want to offer you a choice."

Blacky inspected the Sky Cat as he said " **And what might that choice be?** "

The Sky Cat moved its head around as it looked at its surroundings "This.. All of this, a place to stay, someone to talk to, and.. Possibly even a bright future."

Blacky clenched his fists " **Why now?** "

The Sky Cat stared at Blacky for a moment "What do you mean?"

Blacky snarled at the Sky Cat " **You know what I meant! Ever since I.. Appeared, I've been yelling for someone to find me. Why, now? Why is it now that someone answers?! Why not then?! Why answer at all!?** "

The Sky Cat replied with "I have my reasons."

Blacky clenched his fists tighter " **THAT'S NOT A GOOD ENOUGH ANSWER** **!** "

The Sky Cat rolled its eyes "It might hurt you to hear this, but as a being of higher intelligence than you I do not need to explain my actions, or choices."

Blacky's entire body began to be filled with anger and rage. He suddenly lunged at the cat and attempted to attack it, but before he could the distance between Blacky and the Sky Cat stretched to the point that it looked like it was made out of taffy. Suddenly the distance between the two of them returned to normal in an instant and Blacky was blasted backwards for miles, Mae ducked underneath the incoming Blacky and when she stood up she found herself standing next to Blacky several miles away from the Sky Cat, there was a path of trees broken in two from when Blacky was blasted backwards, and Blacky himself was lying on the ground not in pain, but in shock. The goat stood up and the Sky Cat suddenly appeared in front of him again "I am not only more intelligent than you, but I am also much more powerful then you."

Blacky attempted to punch the Sky Cat again but he suddenly froze in place "The reason why I brought you here now is because you're on the verge of becoming something very powerful and evil. And I was hoping that I could save you from yourself from your own coming fate, of course, as I have already seen before, I couldn't save you."

Blacky attempted to say something but he couldn't move his mouth. The Sky Cat sighed "I can tell from the type of grunts you just let escape your mouth, the reason why I tried to change things even though I've already seen how it will all go, is because, even I can be captured by the grips of optimism and even my own arrogance."

Then a portal opened up over Blacky "Now it is time for you to leave here for ever."

Then Blacky was practically flung up into the portal before it closed. Mae found herself standing along side Blacky, who was lying face first on the ground. She was getting kind of tired ending up wherever Blacky ends up, the goat stood up and took a quick enough look at his surroundings to know that he was stuck in a world with only one type of biome, a desert biome, Blacky got onto his knees before staring up into the sky and letting lose a blood curtailing, rage fueled scream. He then slammed his fists down onto the sand below him and suddenly, from the spots his hands had punched into, a small trail of black grains appeared and zoomed far off into the distance, Blacky stood up and without any other plan of action, followed the small trail of black sand grains to wherever they were leading him, just then there was another large flash of light and Mae had to cover her eyes to, yet again, protect them from the intense light.

* * *

2018 A.D. 12:06 P.M. Blacky's Mind.

* * *

Mae opened her eyes groggily, she was back inside of that cage in that stone hallway in Blacky's mind. As she stood up Mae saw Blacky, who was still in the form of a large black snake, lying on the ground in front of her, his eyes were still closed, and his face had a painful expression on it, Mae looked over to her left and saw that lying on the ground was that old fur covered book, she hated that book now, suddenly the Blacky snake began to stir as he let loose a deep hiss. He lifted his head up off of the ground and it was only a few inches away from the roof of the hallway " **You have poked around in my mind for far to long Borowski, it's time to end this.** "

Suddenly the hallway they were in dissolved into a white featureless void, Mae looked at herself and saw that she was back to normal, she was a cat again, and she was wearing clothes, and the same thing was true for Blacky, he had returned to his goat form and just like Mae was a few moments ago, he was naked and didn't have any sensitive bits, the goat let out a relived sigh " **Oh, how I've missed this form, it just breaths and moves so easily. I can see why you mortals preferred it over your more primitive forms.** "

Mae didn't really want to know what Blacky was talking about and luckily he didn't elaborate. Blacky's empty eyes suddenly glared at Mae " **Now, we've been playing a game of cat and mouse for far to long, just submit to me, and let me take control of your mind.** "

Suddenly several tendrils wrapped around various parts of Mae's body, then bright red markings appeared on the pitch black skin of the tendrils, the red markings looked like the cracks you'd find in a side walk, and once they reached Mae's body they spread to her fur and skin, they crawled up her body and to her head, where they then went into her head and brain. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, and her head felt like it had been split open, the front of Blacky's hands also had the same red crack like markings on them and he had his hands clenched slightly as if he were squeezing something " **Come on Borowski.. It's not like you can win, I can see into your mind right now, and I know that you don't know a single way to defeat me.** "

Mae groaned in pain as blood began to run out of her nose, she wasn't sure if her actual body in the real world was also having a nose bleed or not, but it didn't really matter, because her entire face was just leaking fluids, her eyes were watery, she was practically coughing up both small amounts of blood and saliva, and her ears, just like her nose, began to leak blood. Mae choked down her saliva and blood long enough for her to say "Why me?!"

Blacky chuckled " **Because Borowski, you were promised to me, by a member of your family.** "

Mae couldn't believe what she was hearing, a member of her family promised her to Blacky, and not only that, but a member of her family was apart of the original cult, she only made that leap in logic because the only way someone could promise Mae to Blacky was if they were apart of the old cult "W- Who?!"

Blacky grumbled slightly before answering " **Robert Borowski... Your grandfather.** "

WHAT?! Mae's own granddad was a member of the cult, and he promised Mae to Blacky, as everything she knew about her granddad began to break down Blacky continued " **Before you were born he contracted a terrible disease, what kind it was I don't remember, but in order to save himself he had to make an offering to me. He offered up his, at the time, unborn granddaughter to me... But after you were born, he 'changed his ways' and left my followers, after that I took the gift I had given to him away which allowed that dangerous diseases back into his body, which would also eventually kill him. Ever since then I have waited for the time that the promise he made to me to finally be fulfilled.** "

Okay now Mae didn't know what to think of her granddad, he promised Mae to Blacky, then he left the cult which would end up killing him, but it didn't matter because here Blacky was, attempting to take control of Mae because her granddad said he could who knows how many years ago. Pain began to build up inside of Mae's head and it caused her to try and resist the tendrils' grasp, which only caused a separate tendril to wrap around Mae's neck and begin to choke her. Blacky shook his head " **There's no reason to continue resisting my grasp Borowski. No matter what happens, no matter how this ends, I will always find you.. You will always belong to me, and I WILL have your mind.** "

Mae started to gasp for air as the tendril wrapped around Mae's neck began to grow tighter. Blood continued to stream from Mae's nose and ears as Mae attempted to yell out for anything, help, mercy, just anything that might end this now, but nothing could help her, no one could help her, this was the end for Mae, she was going to die and Blacky was going to win, and her friends were going to die, this wasn't even her inner self doubt talking, she couldn't move, she couldn't talk anymore, she could barely see due to a lack of oxygen to her body. The only thing she could do anymore was just reflect on how her life was a mess, how she was a big fat failure to the world, her friends, and family as a whole, she wondered how she could've possibly avoided all of this, she even began to wonder why Blacky was the way his was, then something suddenly snapped in Mae's head, and it actually hurt due to Blacky trying to push his way in, confidence began to return to Mae and using her new found confidence she struggled to raise her right hand up to the tendril wrapped around her neck, she grabbed onto it before successfully pulling it up to her mouth and biting down on it, the tendril recoiled out of Mae's grasp and shrank away into the ground behind her. Mae then coughed out blood and saliva before finally saying "Yeah, I may be doomed to become your puppet eventually. But that's not happening today."

Blacky chuckled cockily " **And how do you plan on stopping me?** "

Mae grew a confident grin "I also have the ability to peek into your mind."

She then said "At least, I hope that I do."

Under her breath. As Mae willed something to attack Blacky white tendrils with a pink tint burst out of the ground around Blacky and began to wrap around him, now the two of them were both wrapped up by tendrils, the only difference was that Blacky was still trying to shove his way into Mae's brain, Blacky yelled at Mae " **How did you do this?!** "

Mae tried her best shrug "I don't even begin to know, but what I do know is that **I** can now eff with your mind!"

A white pinked tented tendril wrapped around Blacky's forehead and it began to grow orange colored markings that looked like the same markings on the tendrils that were wrapped around Mae, her fingers tingled, not from a lack of blood, but from the fact that she was starting to force her way into Blacky's mind, now the only thing left for her to figure out is, what exactly is she trying to accomplish? She's never done something like this before, and she doesn't even have a single idea of what to do next, also she was starting to feel light headed from her blood loss so that made thinking harder, eventually Mae decided that the best coarse of action to take right now would be to scramble Blacky's brain like an egg, Mae willed whatever was trying to force its way into Blacky, to begin scrambling around things around in his head. Blacky closed his eyes and groaned out in pain " **Agh! Y- You never cease to surprise me, Borowski.** "

He then clenched both his hands into fists causing the pain in Mae's head to get stronger " **But I can do the same thing.** "

Suddenly memories began to flash in front of Mae, but the memories appeared in a ghostly looking vision that overlapped what she was seeing right in front of her, and it was causing her a lot of pain. Mae clenched her own fists and Blacky began to have the same experience, but he looked more annoyed then in pain " **You think that you can stop me by using some of MY own bad memories?** "

Mae opened her mouth and a groan escaped it before she said "I- I hope so."

Honestly, that was the best plan she could come up with, if she just flooded Blacky's head with bad memories maybe he'd get so depressed that he'd just give up, but that wasn't going to happen, in fact the opposite was happening, Mae was the one getting super depressed and was almost on the verge of giving up. Suddenly a much better plan came to her mind, what if she were to continue to flood Blacky's head with bad memories, while also doing the same things he's been doing to her for the past few days, which is that he kept on telling Mae things that made her almost give up before the fight had even started, but how would she do that? she doesn't have powers like Blacky, but, if she were that goat/cat thing again, maybe she could do it, but how would she do THAT? Blacky suddenly looked at Mae with a surprised face " **Borowski, let's not start getting ideas like that.** "

Then several more tendrils came out of the ground underneath Mae and began to wrap around her, two wrapped around her neck and began to choke her, while the rest mostly just wrapped around anything that they touched first, but despite the fact that she was being choked again, the fact that Blacky seemingly read her mind scared her the most, the thought of having her mind read unwillingly always scared Mae, and now it had come true. And now that a little sliver of fear was able to wriggle its way into her mind, the flood gates opened and her entire body was filled with it, she was going to die! She'd die alone, and no one could save her, as Mae began to panic the tendrils that were wrapped around Blacky began to loosen and the pain in his head was starting to go away.

* * *

12:07 P.M. Marvin Wood Mall, the food court.

* * *

Eide groaned as he picked himself up off of the ground, when he was hit by that shock wave that had come off of Blacky Eide had passed out, but how long had he been out for? As Eide stood up found out that he had been blasted back about halfway across the room, he looked over his shoulder and saw the top of Angus's head poking over a table that someone had flipped over to be used as cover, he was about to storm over to them when the building suddenly shook, Eide quickly spun around and saw that Blacky was now hovering in front of Mae again, except this time his head was limp and his eyes were hallow, and as for Mae her head looked as if she were being choked and there was a small trial of saliva rolling down the side of her open mouth. Eide looked over to his right and saw that some of the other followers were helping each other stand up off of the ground, Eide then heard the sound of feet shuffling across the ground behind him, he quickly looked over his shoulder just in time to see Bea scurry over to a different table that had also been flipped over, he clenched his fist before looking back over to the cultists "Kill them! Kill Borowski's friends!"

The other cultists all looked at each other before following their order. Gregg quickly picked up his hunting rifle before looking over to Angus and Lori "We have to find a way to help Mae!"

Angus nodded "But how do we do that?"

Before anyone could answer a bullet whizzed past Angus's hat. Gregg immediately peeked over the table and started to shoot at the cultists "NO ONE DAMAGE'S CAP'N'S HAT!"

Angus was touched that Gregg cared about Angus's hat, but that should've been the least important thing at the moment, Lori also peeked over the table and started to fire at the cultists, sadly both her and Gregg weren't able to hit anything, and the same went for the cultists. Suddenly Blacky's head jolted upwards, his head then looked at Mae before Blacky placed his hand on Mae's face, and forcefully pushed it back causing her mouth to open more, Blacky's head then got closer to Mae and he opened his mouth, and smoke began to pour out of his mouth and into Mae's, Gregg quickly aimed his rifle at Blacky before firing five shots at him, each shot connected and created holes in Blacky, the holes, just like last time, emitted a bright white light that looked like miniature spot lights. Each shot caused Blacky to lurch to the right which also caused him to get farther and farther away from Mae, his hand eventually slid off of Mae's face and white liquid began to stream out of the glowing holes in the left side of his body.

* * *

The Joint-Mind.

* * *

Mae was on the verge of passing out from a lack of oxygen when Blacky suddenly groaned out of pain. Mae was just barely able to see what was going on through her darking vision, five holes appeared on Blacky's left side, three of them were in his head, one was on his arm, and the other was on his side and right in between a space in his rib cage, he yanked his right hand out of a pink tinted tendril's grasp and touched one of the holes on his body. He held his hand in front of his face and saw that he was bleeding again, he clenched his right fist " **You're friends annoy me a lot Borowski.. Maybe I'll kill them in your body, just because.** "

Suddenly Blacky's entire body went numb and cold for a moment, he gasped in shock from the sudden sensation, and at the same time the tendrils that were wrapped around Mae's body dissolved into a black slime looking substance, Mae dropped to the ground and gasped for air, and at the same time feeling returned to Blacky's body before he yelled out " **No! I was almost in!** "

Mae coughed slightly as she realized what Blacky meant, he had almost taken control of Mae's body, he'd almost won. Mae shook her head clearing her thoughts, she didn't have time to get scared over that, she can be terrified of the past few days' events latter. Right now she had to intact that plan she had come up with, and hope to what ever god exists that it works, she stood up and Blacky was about to stomp over to her when the white pink tinted tendrils wrapped around Blacky again, but this time they were much tighter, she didn't know what to do next, so she just went with the first thing that came to mind. She made another tendril appear out of the ground in front of Blacky, that tendril then stabbed him and began to drain his blood into itself, the tendril then un-stabbed itself before shrinking away into the ground and popping up in front of Mae, yet again she went with what came to mind first, she opened her mouth and the tendril squirted Blacky's blood into her mouth. Mae choked down the blood and almost gagged on it, it tasted like the most bitter, rotten, and disgusting thing she could think of. As Mae almost threw up her body began to dissolve into smoke before reforming into her goat/cat body, she looked at herself and slightly regretted her discussion, she then looked back over to Blacky who was trying his hardest to break free from the pink tinted tendrils, Mae grew a grin that was both slightly confident and extremely nervous at the same time " _ **Ha! Now I got the same powers as you!**_ "

Ugh, she REALLY hated that voice, Blacky snarled at Mae " **YOU DON'T HAVE A SINGLE UNDERSTAND OF ANYTHING THAT I CAN DO! YOU CAN'T BEAT ME WITH MY OWN FUCKING POWERS!** "

Mae took in a deep breath as she thought to herself " _ **Might as well try.**_ "

She then made yet another tendril appear out of the ground and she then made it wrap around Blacky's forehead. The tendril began to regrow those orange crack looking markings on its skin. For a moment nothing happened, but then Mae was suddenly flooded with hundreds of thoughts and memories that all came from Blacky, she couldn't focus on any of it as they were all to clustered together for her to grab onto just one, she was barely even able to regain enough focus to just begin to scramble Blacky's mind so that he could be bombarded by his own bad memories, Blacky began to groan slightly out of discomfort " **L- Like I said before, you think that you can defeat me with memories that I don't even care about?** "

Mae felt like she should be doing something with her hands, she raised them up and began to act as if she were squishing something with them. Blacky suddenly felt very different, the top of his head felt like it was on fire, and he felt a pit form in the bottom of his stomach, at the same time a memory began to play in front of him and it overlapped his vision, he saw himself running through that smoke filled void that he calls " _home_ ", he was yelling for any kind of help, but just like always nothing answered, he then began to slow down before finally falling down to his knees and screaming out for help, he then collapsed to the ground and began to create a puddle of tears next to his face, Blacky was horrified to both, see that memory again, and to feel actual fear " **H- How!- D- Don't!- S- STOP!** "

Mae felt her confidence get a big boost, her plan was actually working, she was winning! Blacky began to feel real panic as he tried to wriggle himself free from the pink tinted tendrils, but of course it wasn't working. Mae continued to force Blacky to relive his worst memories and to feel real fear, panic, and whatever would make him give up, Blacky saw another vision begin to play in front of him and fear continued to build up inside of him, and the entire white-void-thing began to shake, Mae began to laugh out of complete joy " _ **I can't believe it! I'm actually winning!**_ "

Blacky tried to shake his head so he could slip free from the tendril wrapped around his forehead as he yelled out " **No! You- you can't win! I- I won't let you!** "

Mae rolled her eyes " _ **Yeah, I don't think you're in control anymore Blacky.. Wanna know why?**_ "

More fear began to build up in Blacky as yet another memory played for him. He was truly beginning to panic, he was getting frantic, he was trying desperately to escape the tendrils wrapped around him, Mae began to tighten the tendrils' grasp around Blacky as she slowly walked towards him " ** _I'm done with you.. I'm just.. So sick and tired of you, Eide, and any kind of cult that worships you._** "

Blacky tried to back away from Mae but he couldn't get any traction on the ground " **No! S- Stop! I- I- I'll make you g- go insane!** "

Mae didn't stop. She continued to walk towards Blacky getting closer and closer, all the while Blacky began to panic more and more, he was getting more and more frantic, Mae then stopped and stood a few inches away from Blacky " ** _I am not afraid of you anymore, eff.. Off._** "

The white-void-thing began to shake even more, it began to break apart and drift off into what looked to be a different void that looked like space, Mae then stood up straight and raised her hand up which was clenched into a fist, she then punched Blacky in his face, and the tendrils wrapped around him dissolved into white slime, he then began to scream out in fear as he fell into the space like void and Mae felt a sense of relief, like a weight had been lifted off of her soul, she felt carefree again, then that all came crashing down when she began to wake up in the real world.

* * *

12:08 P.M. Food court.

* * *

Blacky's once vacant eyes suddenly shot out a bright white light that looked like a spot light, his head jolted back upwards and at the same time Mae's eyes opened up finally. Gregg grew a giant smile "MAE'S AWAKE- Shit."

Eide and the rest of the cult looked back over to Blacky and they saw that Mae's face was returning to normal, except Blacky he didn't look like he was normal, white cracks began to form on his body, and Mae realized what was going on around her, she suddenly screamed out in fear as Blacky slowly floated towards her his mouth still agape although this time his mouth was shining out a brightly white light like a spot light. Bea looked over to the rest of her friends "We have to save her!"

Angus looked over to Bea "But how do we get past the cultists?!"

Suddenly the entire building began to shake more then it had ever done before, Gregg stood up "Like that!"

No one really knew what Gregg truly meant but they followed his lead as he ran towards Mae while the cultists were distracted by the building's shaking, Blacky slowly raised his right hand up towards Mae's head. Eide suddenly grabbed the back of Lori's jacket, he wanted to yell something at her but he was just to angry to form any words, so instead he literally growled at her Lori quickly smacked the side of Eide's head with the butt of her pistol, the sudden shock of the smack caused him to let go of Lori and stumble in shock. Gregg, Selmers, Lori, Angus, and Bea all finally reached Mae who looked over to her friends "Guys! Effing help me!"

Gregg quickly nodded before staring at the pad locks that kept the chains wrapped around Mae's body in place "Uuuhh. I don't know how to help you duder."

Mae yelled at him "Gregg! Shut up and figure something out!"

Gregg's grip tightened on the hunting rifle and at the same time Blacky placed his first finger on top of Mae's forehead. She groaned out in pain as red markings began to appear on her forehead, her eyes started to water and Lori, who was keeping her eyes on Eide, turned around and raised her pistol up, she then shot Blacky in his head before he finally took his finger off of Mae's head and the red markings on her forehead disappeared, Gregg tried to pull the chains off of Mae, but it wasn't working. He was starting to get really frustrated, so he took the hunting rifle and used the bottom of it to break one of the padlocks off of one of the chains, and it worked "Wow, that worked."

Mae began to try and wiggle free from her restraints "Yeah! Keep doing that!"

Gregg nodded before continuing to break off the other padlocks, he eventually came to the finally lock that kept Mae stuck to the red hand truck, but he couldn't break it "Dammit dammit dammit dammit! I can't get this last one!"

Angus quickly pushed Gregg to the side before kicking the last lock and breaking it. Bea and Gregg helped to pull off the chains on Mae before Angus helped the cat to get off of the hand truck. Eide ran towards Mae and her friends fueled with burning rage, he wanted to kill them, he wanted to see them suffer, but before he could get close to any of them Angus stepped forwards before punching Eide directly in the middle of his head, he fell to the floor before Mae and her friends all started to run away from the hole, Blacky, and towards the mall's front doors. Blacky turned in the air and looked over to Mae and her friends as they ran away, his entire body began to tremble, the white cracks in his body, and the white lights coming out of his mouth and eyes began to turn red before he let loose a massive yell of anger, the building began to shake even more, and suddenly Blacky exploded before a large tower of fire burst out of the hole and began to set fire to the mall. Mae's friends were all suddenly stopped by a black masked teen "W- Wait please! W- We don't- We didn't know any of this would happen! W- We were just a bunch of disgruntled teens that wanted to stick it to our parents! A- All of this started because that psycho showed up one day and changed the entire group! H- He killed Malcolm!"

The group of friends looked at each other before Angus said "We.. Can't really help you, just run I guess."

The black masked teen nodded as he took of the mask, he was a young rabbit "Y- Yeah."

The teen rabbit ran towards his other cultists? before Mae's friends continued to run out of the burning building. Eide let out a deep groan as he stood up and looked over to the escaping friend group, he also began to ran after them, he passed over all of the debris that had come off of the roof from when it was shaking and from how from the fact it was currently burning, Mae looked over her shoulder and saw Eide running towards her, her head began to feel hot again, her vision began to blur slightly, before she blasted out a shock wave that caused Eide to trip over. He fell onto the ground and skidded slightly, he then heard something snap over him and he looked up to see a burning support beam fall out of the roof and towards him, he then looked at Mae and friends as they ran out of the building "AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! NOOO!

The support beam then fell on top of him. But luckily, or not so luckily, Eide was able to react quick enough to have the beam pass through him instead of crush him, as Mae and her friends ran out of the now burning abandoned mall Mae saw that a goat skeleton began to form in the massive tower of fire coming out of the hole in the middle of the mall, it pointed at Mae before disappearing and the fire tower along with it. As they ran towards the sidewalk in front of the mall Bea saw that the fire burning the mall was much worse then she had thought, suddenly four police cars, two firetrucks, and two ambulances arrived in front of the mall and Mae's friends, the same officer that had been checking in on Angus since Gregg first went missing, who's name was Mathews, got out of one of the police cars "Angus!? What are you doing here?! And how'd you find Greggory?!"

Angus looked at his friends before answering "Uh.. That's.. A long story, can I ask how you found out about this?"

As Mathews made his way towards the mall's doors he answered with "Some kid called us, he sounded panicked, and there was screaming coming from somewhere. Told us to come here, and now I can see why."

And at the same time the firefighters began to ready their equipment to put out the building's fire, all the while paramedics ran along side other firefighters and into the still burning building to find any one that might still be in there, and that might still be injured. Another officer had walked over to Mae and her friends to tell them to sit down on the sidewalk and wait to be questioned about what was going on. As they waited a voice came over Mathews's radio, he listened to it before turning it off again and running quickly into the burning building, after a moment he came out of the building and he was pushing Eide towards a police car. As Eide got closer to the car an officer took of the broken gas mask on Eide's face and after it came off the officer then slid Eide's hood down and reviled to everyone who was there that Eide was a cat, who had a large notch in both of his ears. His fur was the same color as Mae's, his fur was shaggy and looked as if it hadn't been taken care of in years, he also had three curly tufts of fur on either of his cheeks, and his eyes were the same night mare eyes color as Mae. The fact that Eide looked so similar to Mae made her feel sick and hollow, Eide looked over to Mae and her friends "I'll find you! You can't stop me! I-"

He was then shoved into the back of a police car and before he could continue the door was slammed shut on him cutting him off again, as the police car that Eide was inside of drove off the officer and paramedic team ran out of the building, two of the paramedics had a black masked teen on a stretcher, and one of the officers had a different teen handcuffed and he was being led towards a police car. As that car drove off, and the firemen were finally getting the fire under control. Selmers tapped Bea's shoulder "You remember back in Possum Springs, before we came here, I told you that I can't show up on the news or my parents will go ballistic?"

Bea nodded and Selmers pointed to a news van that had just pulled up to the scene "I need to go."

Mae nodded "Yeah, let's go."

Angus then grabbed Mae's shirt "Wait, me and Gregg are going to stay behind to answer some of the officers' questions."

Mae nodded as Angus pulled out his car keys and tossed them to Bea. She caught the keys before her, Mae, Selmers, and Lori all ran to Angus's car so they could head back to the apartment and so they could keep themselves out of the news, as everyone pilled into the car Mae couldn't help but grin slightly, she did it, she defeated the guy that had been tormenting her for two years, she put Eide behind bars, and she helped find Gregg, she felt true pride in herself, she also felt hunger, thirst, and exhaustion in herself. Bea sighed in relief as she put her hands onto the steering wheel "Let's.. Never do something like this again."

Everyone in the car nodded and Bea said "Good, now. I need an effing huge lunch, and a big ass nap."

Mae nodded in agreement as Bea turned on the car and drove away from the mall heading back into town and back towards Angus's apartment, a sense of peace and relief rolled over everyone as they drove away from the mall and Lori passed out suddenly, her head leaned against Selmers's shoulder and the bear didn't try to move it.


	22. The Final Stop

September 19th, 9:30 A.M. Angus's Apartment

* * *

It's been a day since everyone found Gregg, it's been a day since they saved Mae, it's been a day since they threw Eide in jail, it's been a day since they defeated a god-like creature. And the only thing Bea cared about at the moment was packing her stuff, she already had her clothes stuffed inside of her suitcase, but she had yet to zip it closed, although zipping it closed would've been much easier if she were actually next to her suitcase, because instead she was sitting on the bed, lying to herself, she told herself that the only thing on her mind was packing up so that she could drive her friends home, but instead of actually doing that she's sitting on the bed trying to convince herself to not panic over the fact that she almost died, she met a effing god-like creature that wanted her dead, her best friend passed out several times over this course of this trip, and the fact that she has yet to tell Mae that she has a crush on her. Bea sighed as she stood up off of the bed and walked over to the suitcase so that she could finally zip it close, once that was done she wheeled the suitcase out of the guest bedroom and into the living room where she saw Mae lying down on the ground, hands on her chest, and Gregg was also lying on the ground next to Mae, hands on his chest as well, he was also wearing his leather jacket again and he looked much cleaner then he had when they found him in that awful mall.

Mae suddenly said "You think life hates us?"

Gregg shrugged "I've been thinking that for awhile, this is just more evidence for it."

Mae then looked over to Gregg "How did the cult kidnap you?"

He chuckled slightly "Some dude just jumped me when I was next to an ally, clonked me over the head with something and the next thing I knew I was tied up in a van, face to face with Eide again. Although he wasn't as much of a bitch as he was yesterday, he was just kinda silent."

Mae then looked back up to the ceiling and right as she did something clicked in her head "OH MY GOD!"

Gregg sat up and so did Mae. Bea, who had been standing there listening to the other two talk, suddenly said "What?"

Mae put her hands on her heads "They kidnapped Gregg because they knew that I'd come here to help find him, they were using him as bait!"

Bea was about to say something when she decided to actually think about that idea for a moment, and Mae was right, Gregg was used for bait just to lure Mae in "Holy shit, she's right."

Mae looked over to Bea "The fact it took you so long to realize that kind of hurts me."

Bea rolled her eyes before she started to walk towards the apartment's front door, right as she was about to open it she looked over to Mae and said "You got everything packed?"

Mae nodded as she jumped up off of the floor "Sure do! Just let me go get it!"

She then ran into the guest bedroom so she could get her suitcase. Bea didn't really want to wait around for Mae so she had already walked out of the apartment and to her car by the time Mae came through the apartment lobby's front doors "I thought you were going to wait for me!"

Bea shrugged as she took a drag off of her cigarette "I didn't want to suffer through you're constant attempts at sledding down the stairs with a suit case."

As Mae got closer to Bea she yelled out a response "I used the elevator!"

Bea rolled her eyes again as Mae finally reached her and the car. Bea opened up the trunk and put her and Mae's suitcase in the trunk, and as she closed the trunk a car suddenly parked next to Bea's car, the window then rolled down and Steve Scriggins poked his head out of it "BeaBea!... Mae."

The cat clenched her fists as she said "Scriggins."

To the male crocodile, Bea groaned as she looked over to Steve "What do you want Scriggs?"

Steve sighed "BeaBea, come on. Can't a guy say hi to a beautiful lady like you?"

Bea and Mae stared at Steve with angry deadpan faces, Steve sighed again "Fine, the reason why I'm here is because I just wanted to know why you bought those guns from me."

Bea rolled her eyes "It was so that we could defend ourselves."

He nodded "Yeah.. But this town hasn't had an armed robbery, or even an armed murder in ten years."

Bea shrugged "Just wanted to make sure we were safe. We were heading into a sketchy looking part of town to find Gregg."

When Steve heard Gregg's name he perked up slightly "Oh uh, DID you find Gregg?"

Mae then said "Why do you care?"

Steve glared at Mae "Just answer my question."

Mae huffed at Steve "Yes we found him."

Steve grinned slightly "Good.. Wonder where he works now."

Mae groaned "God Steve, you just want to steal shit from Gregg's new workplace don't you?"

He shrugged "Maybe, or maybe I just want to actually hang out with him... Anyways, Bea."

He then looked back over to Bea, but something caught his eye in Bea's car. He saw Mae and Bea's suitcases in the trunk "You leaving already?"

Bea nodded "Yes, and it would go much faster if you'd leave us alone."

Steve wasn't paying that much attention to Bea "Cool, I'm actually heading back to the Springs in a day or two.. How about when I get back you. Drop me a line and we can catch up."

That did it. Mae suddenly yelled out "JESUS STEVE! JUST EFF OF!"

Steve stared at Mae cockily and mockingly said to her "Why? Am I making you mad?"

Mae was on the verge of beating the shit out of Steve when Bea told her "Mae, calm down. I got this."

She tried her best to contain her anger as Bea told Steve "Seriously, eff off. We want to go home."

Steve shook his head "Come on BeaBea, I'm not stopping you from leaving here."

Bea then said "Yes you are you're cockiness WILL distract us."

Steve then silently muttered to himself "That's a first."

He then sighed "BeaBea, please. You know I love you, and you know that you still love me. So stop putting up this, tough girl act, and let's have some _fun_."

Mae then yelled out "GODDAMMIT STEVE! I'VE DEALT WITH A LOT OF STUFF RECENTLY AND YOU AREN'T MAKING ANYTHING BETTER! SO WHY DON'T YOU JUST FUCK OFF AND GO BRAIN DEAD FROM CHOKING ON YOUR OWN FUCKING EGO!"

Steve leaned out of the open window more and glared at Mae again "And why should I listen to you Killer?"

Mae wanted desperately to strangle Steve and actually make him choke "BECAUSE I'M-"

Bea then suddenly put her hand on Mae's shoulder and said "Mae."

And as the cat turned to face her friend she expected to be told to stop and to let Bea handle this, but instead Bea did something that caught both Mae and Steve off guard. Bea used her other hand to take her cigarette out of her mouth and toss it to the ground before pulling Mae's head closer to her own before placing her lips on Mae locking them into a surprise kiss. Steve went wide eyed in absolute shock, he could say anything, and the only thing that left Steve's mouth was a confused squeak, Bea then pulled away from Mae before looking back over to Steve and saying "You should listen to her because I'm already taken Steve."

He still didn't know what to do, except, slowly lean back into his car, roll up the window, and drive away. Mae suddenly squeaked out "What just happened?"

Bea's entire face blushed as she realized what she just did "I- Uh- W- Well- Y- You see-"

Mae started to grin wildly "Y- You okay M- MaeDay?"

She nodded "I'm better then _okay_! That was my first successful kiss!"

Bea's face only got more red as Mae proclaimed that "Y- Yeah.. S- So, about th- that."

Bea then sat down on the hood of her car and Mae jumped up to also sit on it. Bea sighed trying to relieve her own flustered emotions, she then took out a another cigarette and began to smoke on that as she said "S- So... I bet that you can tell, that.. I have a... Crush on you."

Mae's large grin didn't leave her face as she practically was on the verge of exploding from excitement "Bea... I've had a crush on you since I came back from college."

That statement didn't help Bea's blushing face "R- Really?"

Mae nodded "Yeah! I mean I'm surprised you didn't realize that. I'm a lady that likes both boys and girls, and you're a beautiful woman. Thought it would've been obvious."

Bea chuckled "Y- Yeah, it probably should've been obvious b- but, I was busy with work. Then there was last year's cult event."

Mae nodded again "Yeah... So."

Bea sighed "So."

Mae then continued "Are we, something now?"

Bea was silent for a moment "...MaeBea."

Mae was about to say something when she suddenly realized what Bea just did "O- Oh...

There was a moment of silence between the new couple before Mae said "C- Can we... Like, kiss again?"

Bea thought about it "Yeah, sure."

She then leaned down to kiss Mae. Suddenly the peaceful and loving moment was broken by the sound of Gregg yelling out "ANGUS! WE'RE NOT THE ONLY QUEER KIDS FROM POSSUM SPRINGS!"

Then Gregg and Angus's apartment window slid open and Angus stuck his head out of it before yelling down to Gregg "I know bug! I've been watching since Steve drove up to them!"

Bea sighed "That was nice while it lasted."

Mae shrugged "It doesn't have to stop now."

Bea nodded "Yeah it does."

She then pointed to the apartment's front doors and Mae saw that Gregg was standing there, and standing next to him on either side was Lori and Selmers, and they had their stuff packed and ready to go "Oh."

Bea then got off of the car's hood before helping Lori and Selmers put their stuff in the car's trunk. Once that was done Lori, Selmers, Bea, and Mae all got into the car, then Gregg and Angus, who had come down to the street while Bea put the other two's stuff in the trunk, walked over to the car, Gregg leaned against the passenger side door as he talked to Mae "See ya' latter duder."

Mae nodded "See ya'."

Gregg then extended his fist two Mae and the two of them then fist bumped, Angus on the other had was standing next to the driver side door and he was talking to Bea "We'll be seeing you latter."

Bea sighed "I'm going to miss you guys."

Angus "Nodded me too."

Before he could walk back over to the side walk Bea said "You know.. Last year I said that you and Gregg's relationship wouldn't last. With you two being high school sweet hearts and all, but now that I've been through all of this, I know that you two have something special."

Angus smiled warmly at Bea "Thanks Beatrice.. And if you need any help with your new relationship with Mae, feel free to ask me any questions you may have."

Bea nodded "You got it Mr. Delaney."

Angus then walked over to the side walk and Bea rolled up the car windows. As the car drove away from the apartment Mae could see that Gregg and Angus were waving goodbye to them, and she could also see that Gregg was waving the most enthusiastically to the point that he was practically shaking in time with his arm. Mae watched as the city of Bright Harbor began to slowly disappear from her view and turn into dense woods, the midday sun shown through the car's windows and everyone was just enjoying their almost to foreign sense of peace and calm, they missed that feeling, they spent several days stressing over and this silence just made everything feel nice. It was so peaceful Mae fell asleep in the passenger seat, Bea grinned slightly as she glanced over to the cat, now that they were a thing Bea could freely think of just how cute Mae truly was, especially when she was sleeping, Selmers began to scribble down a new poem into her journal and Lori stared out of the car window, she watched as the trees whizzed by, and the occasional car that would pass by as well, Lori then stretched herself slightly before she started to scribble in her notepad, while everyone enjoyed the quite, Bea enjoyed it the most, the quite allowed her to focus and stop stressing over her job, and the fact that she almost died just a day ago.

* * *

6:44 P.M. Possum Springs.

* * *

Mae was woke up by something shaking her, she could also hear a quite voice say to her "Mae, Mae, Mae wake up."

The cat groggily opened her eyes and looked over to her left to see that Bea was the one shaking her and quietly talking to her. Mae sat up straight in the seat "Yeah?" Bea then put her other hand on the steering wheel before saying "We're finally back."

Mae stared out her window to see the welcoming sign to Possum Springs speed by "Cool.. Can you drop me off at my place, I'm really tired."

Bea grinned slightly before answering "Sure thing."

Mae nodded "Thanks BeaBea."

She then almost fell asleep again, and when she opened her eyes she saw the car come to a stop. Bea walked with Mae up to her house's front door, and once Mae reached the door she turned around and smiled at her new girlfriend "Thanks BeaBea.. I'll see you tomorrow."

Bea also smiled "I'm guessing at the Pickax."

Mae nodded before Bea kissed the top of Mae's head, and before she turned back around to head back to her car Bea said "Night MaeDay."

And Mae watched as the car drove out of view, she then spun around and opened the door, she walked into her house and was met by the smell of diner being cooked. As she closed the door Mae could hear the sound of her dad say "Kitten? Is that you?"

It felt good to hear her father's voice again "Yeah dad! It's me!"

Then the voice of her mother yelled out from the kitchen "Welcome home sweetie! And just in time too, how about while we're eating diner you tell us about how it went over in Bright Harbor."

Mae smiled before yelling out a response "You got it."

She then made her way over to her the staircase and dragged her suitcase all the way up to her bedroom where she just let it fall to the ground before she then went back downstairs and had diner with her parents.

* * *

6:54 P.M. the Applebaum Apartment Complex, Apartment 300.

* * *

After Bea dropped Selmers and Lori off at their respective houses Bea finally returned to her own. She walked through the apartment room 300's front door and was met by the smell of nicotine, the mark of Bea as Mae had once called it, but something surprised Bea when she saw it, sitting on the couch still awake was her father, he either hadn't noticed that Bea had come home, or he didn't want to acknowledge her for some reason. She walked over to the couch and sat down next to her father who shot her a quick glance as she sat down, but Bea still didn't say anything, she just let the silence mixed with the heavy breathing of her father, and the sounds coming from the TV to just wash over her, it felt so nostalgic to Bea, and she had every reason to feel nostalgic over those sounds, she hadn't heard them in what felt like ages, she finally cleared her throat which caught her father's attention.

Mr. Santello inspected Bea for a moment before he said "You're home early."

Bea nodded "Yes, we found Gregg quicker then we thought."

Mr. Santello also nodded "That's good."

There was another moment of silence between the two of them before Mr. Santello finally asked "Anything... Exciting happen while you were there?"

Bea hesitated to answer for a moment "Uh... No, not really... Well. Except for one, tiny thing."

This caught Mr. Santello's full attention "What is this _tiny thing_?"

Bea sighed as she built up the courage inside of herself to say what she needed to say "I... Got in a relationship with Mae while we were there."

Mr. Santello was silent for a moment. And the moment felt like it took forever to Bea, her nerves were going haywire "...So does that mean you're a.. Lesbian?"

Bea hadn't actually figure out what she was yet, but what she did know was that she loved Mae "I'm.. Not sure yet."

Mr. Santello nodded "Alright then... You eaten yet?"

Bea shook her head before her father pointed to the fridge "Got frozen pizza in there, I even ordered a special slice just for when you'd get back."

Bea smiled "Thanks dad."

She then got up off of the couch and walked into the little kitchen area of the apartment so she could make herself some diner.

* * *

 _September, 26th, 2018._

 _Jeez, it's been a long time since I've written in this journal. The last time I had written in it was last year and after that whole dumpster fire of a year, I kinda put this thing away for awhile. Then, why would I bring it back out? I don't really know, all I know is that I don't know what to actually write about in it so, let's see._

 _Well, it's been a week since me, Bea, Selmers, Lori, Angus, and Gregg all blew up a monster that I call "Blacky" and it's also been a week since Eide was thrown into Bright Harbor's nearest prison, some place that has the name "Smith" in it or something, and of course, it's been a week since me and Bea became a thing. It's still kinda awkward to think about what we actually are so we haven't quite gotten to the whole "Girlfriends" stage of our relationship. Now what do I write about? I guess, I should write about what happened during our week back from Bright Harbor._

 _So, like the day after we got back home Lori announced that she completely scrapped her cheesy horror movie that we were all helping to make, and I can't blame her for it, we lived through a horror and action movie not too long ago. As for Selmers, she hasn't changed much, she still writes poems, and she's still the most laid back person in Possum Springs. Although recently she has started to express an interest in seeing her kid again, but that's pretty much it for her. Now Bea, she also hasn't changed much. Aside from our relationship of course. The Ol' Pickax is still exactly the same, even the employees are, which is good because Bea was getting sick and tired of firing employees every week or so._

 _Now, all that's left is me, Mae Borowski. Queen of Possum Springs, and the world's trashiest mammal. I haven't changed much, like I've already written several times, the only major thing that's changed is my relationship with Bea, and even that isn't that big of a deal when you think about it, I mean like. Our relationship went from best childhood friends, to no longer friends, to best available friends, then to best adult friends, and now we're a couple, so our relationship just jumps around like that._

* * *

 _So it's been an hour since I wrote in this thing, and the reason why I'm back is because I realized that I lied kind of. I said that I hadn't changed much, when in reality, I had. From what I can tell, that mind thing Blacky gave me in Bright Harbor is gone and I think I used the last one back in the mall when I stopped Eide from chasing us. And I miss Casey, and granddad more then ever now. I saw them twice last week, but they're still dead. I couldn't save them, and I also found out last week that Blacky basically caused the death of granddad not to mention the fact that Casey's only dead because the old cult threw him into that hole. I also can still taste dried blood in my mouth but that's something that happens to me from time to time even without the help of deity._

 _But I guess that NOW I've officially already written about any major changes in my life recently. So. It's goodbye to who ever is reading this, wither it be my, highly unlikely, future children, or to some historian that found this book and thinks it's important for some reason. Who am I kidding, I basically had an addiction to writing in this thing I'll be back eventually, but until then._

 _R.I.P. Casey Hartley~ "SK8 and Destroy, SK8 To CR8! Bound for Glory!"_

 _R.I.P. Granddad~ "Stories are a way of escaping the real world, they transport you to a fantasy world of magic and fun. But don't ever run to a fake world just to escape the real one, the real world may get bad every so often. But it can get better, you just gotta remember that the world of stories will always be there, the real world, may not be."_

Placed underneath the two strings of text that payed memory to Mae's deceased friend and family, is a hand drawn picture of a young Casey and a young Mae lying on the ground in front of Mae's granddad who was sitting in a rocking chair and was reading a story to the two young cats. And placed underneath that picture is another string of text that reads:

 _Your parents may have forgotten you once, but you never forget your friends, or family. Casey, shred those heavenly half pipes, granddad, tell the angles beautiful stories._

And underneath that string of text is a drawing of an octopus that wore a goofy hat and had a handle bar mustache on it. And it was drawn in a way that made it seem as if it said the line of text hovering above it. Mae then put her pencil down in a small cardboard box she kept hidden under her bed before closing her journal and also setting it in the box, she then slid under her covers and closed her eyes and after a a silent moment or two, she fell asleep.

 **THE END**

* * *

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

* * *

 **So we finally made it, the end of NitW: BtS (REMASTERED), I'll be honest. Out of all of the stories that I've written, and remastered, this has to be the story that I feel really proud about. Now then, with this story out of the way, we can move on to my next NitW story. What it will be? That's a surprise for later.. Until then, have fun living your own life, and I'll see you later!**


End file.
